Brendon McCullum in action against Canada, at the Wankhede, on Sunday

Mumbai: New Zealand secured a World Cup quarter final spot Sunday with Brendon McCullum posting 101 and Ross Taylor bludgeoning 74 from 44 balls in a lopsided 97-run win over Canada.

Now the New Zealanders lead group A with eight points and are aiming to finish No. 1 in a pool containing three teams who have won the last five World Cup titles.

Opener McCullum’s well-timed century was his first in 22 World Cup matches, while stand-in captain Taylor clobbered a bowling attack for the second successive match. The seventh-wicket pair added 31 runs in the last over from Rizwan Cheema as New Zealand reached 358 for six after being sent in to bat — their second-highest World Cup total after the 363 for 5 they set against Canada four years ago.

James Franklin, who faced the last over of the innings, blazed an unbeaten 31 from eight balls including two boundaries and three sixes. The last over from Cheema stretched to eight balls, including a no-ball and a wide — and was the third most costly over in ODI history. Herschelle Gibbs scored six sixes in one over against Netherlands at the last World Cup and Shahid Afridi hit two boundaries and four sixes in a 32-run over against Sri Lanka in 2007.

Needing to score at seven an over, the Canadians lost their first two wickets for four runs — Kyle Mills having both Ruvindu Gunasekera (2) and Zubin Surkari (1) caught by Taylor at slip before he left the field with a strained thigh muscle. He didn’t return to the field in the only concern for the New Zealanders on Sunday.

Skipper Ashish Bagai restored some pride, scoring 84 from 87 balls to help lift his team to 261 for 9 after sharing partnerships of 46 with No. 3 Hiral Patel (31) and 125 with No. 5 Jimmy Hansra to take the score to 175 for 4. Hansra retired with cramp on 53, then returned to finish unbeaten on 70 as Canada posted their highest total of the tournament.

Patel swatted a six and hit five boundaries before he was caught behind off Jacob Oram, who returned the best figures for New Zealand at 3 for 47.