Well, we knew that last night, before I went to bed, but it has a nice ring to it, so I thought I'd say it again. I like the sound of it for several reasons: First we won. Against a Full member. They may be going through strife, but that doesn't matter, we beat them and convincingly so. Second is that we came back from ourselves being trounced a day before. That is no easy thing to do in any sport, let alone cricket where the mental game is so important. Two days ago, our batsmen largely struggled, and our bowlers seemed incapable of taking a wicket. Yesterday, lead by a wonderful 98 by Steve Tikolo, our batsmen, and inportantly, the middle order looked imposing. Our bowlers, who had been belted around the same ground a day earlier, came back strong to bowl the Zimbabweans out with 4 overs and 79 runs to go. That is a huge effort and should be commended. Third, we are in a series. Against a Full member. And there is another one due to start almost as soon as this one finishes. Considering that Kenya has not even played a full member country for 2 years this is in itself a huge step. Make no mistake, yesterday was the day when Kenyan cricket stood up and showed it was worth being counted. Harare beckons, and Kenya will go into Wednesday's match with the confidence that they can win. They should not be overconfident - several of the Zimbabweans have shown plenty of fight and talent, but we have proved to the World and ourselves that we can win.
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It was also exciting to see that several of the players who had an impact are still young. Tanmay Mishra's 45 speaks of big things to come for the 19 year old, although he needs to worry less about reaching milestones and just get on with it. Likewise Alfred Luseno showed sand to tighten his line and take a wicket in his second spell. It was his first in One Day Internationals, and will have given him the taste for more and the confidence to go after them. Maurice Ouma failed again with the bat, but showed safe hands in the field. His batting will come good as he is more than capable. All I would like to see now is Kalpesh Patel get a run - probably in place of Ababu, who was the only bowler not to take a wicket yesterday.
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I am not forgetting our seasoned players. Tikolo's 98 may well be seen as the turning point in this series, and Odoyo again did his bit with both the bat, and then the ball to take the first two wickets. One player who has really started to impress over the last couple of tours is Peter Ongondo. He was the pick of Kenya's bowling yesterday taking 3-26, all crucial wickets. In a way it was a shame that he only bowled 7 overs, so missed the opportunity to take a bigger haul, but good captaincy by Tikolo to ensure that all his bowlers got a taste of the action. There is nothing like a whiff of success to spur a player on.
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It is worth noting the difference in extras between the two matches. On Saturday, Kenya gave away 18 extras in a total of 231. Yesterday, they only gave away 7. I don't know whether this was due to the fact that they were tired on Saturday, or it was a concious effort yesterday, but the improvement is worth noting. All in all, there has been a lot of positives to come from the weekend. There are still some things I am unsure about - Like Tony Suji at 3, but if Kenya keep winning, I guess I will learn to get used to them. I can't wait 'till Wednesday and Harare!
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Full Scorecard from cricinfo.
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