Taibu leads Zimbabwe to a thumping win against Canada

Who was going to win the encounter between Zimbabwe and Canada when they met at Nagpur was anyone's guess. There wasn't much seperating the two after their performance in the first round. But Zimbabwe had its nose in front, only barely, because of its experience. And that's what took them through as Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabawe's most experienced campaigner came good when it mattered the most.

With more than 130 one-day internationals under his belt, Taibu was the man Zimbabwe looked up to, to get going in the Cup that counts. And after failing to deliver in the warm up games and the first match, Taibu announced his arrival by hitting a match winning knock of 98 in 99 balls against Canada.

Taibu walked out to bat on the second ball of the first innings after opener Taylor was trapped LBW by Chouhan on the very first delivery. Things turned ugly when Zimbabwe lost its second opener, the explosive Coventry in the 4th over reducing the side to 7 for 2. So Taibu was joined by Ervine on the crease and the two started rebuilding the Zimbabwean innings. The startegy was simple- keep rotating the strike and punish the bad deliveries. And punish he did, especially taking the attack to spinners.

Hansra was the first to face the assault at the hands of Taibu, going for 11 and 10 runs in his first two overs. Cheema got similar treatment from Taibu in the 15th over, being hit for two consecutive boundaries. From there on as Ervine took charge and went after the bowlers, Taibu dropped the anchor and rotated the strike to help Zimbabwe reach 187 in the 31st over without losing any more wickets. The pair was involved in a 181 run partnership, the second highest of the tournament so far. Taibu finally fell to Rao in the 34th over, 2 runs short of a well deserved century. But he was still awarded the 'Man of the Match' trophy for his outstanding performance that did Canada in.