Australia wins easily over Canada

When Bagai chose to bat, the probability of an early finish in Bangalore increased significantly, but Australia’s inevitable supremacy was delayed by an extraordinary attack from 19-year-old Hiral Patel, who batted fearlessly to score a rapid half-century off the world’s fastest bowlers. After the labour against Kenya, Ponting had said he wanted to win this convincingly but it wasn’t until the 29th over, by which time Canada had reached 150 for 2 that Australia began to dominate.

By the time Shane Watson and Brad Haddin were launching the ball with frightening regularity into sparsely populated stands at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Australia had taken control of a game that extended their unbeaten run in World Cups to 34 matches, and vaulted them from fourth to first in Group A. Though the margin of victory – seven wickets with 91 balls to spare – was huge, they did not have it easy throughout. Canada ambushed them with the bat, and then created some chances with the new ball. Australia’s pace and power eventually swamped them but Ashish Bagai’s team exceeded expectations in their final World Cup appearance.