Friday, March 24, 2006

Mixed Results For Kenya's Associate Rivals.

It is increasingly looking as though rain will decide the eighth place in the Intercontinental Cup, with the first day's play between Namibia and Nepal washed out in Windhoek. If the match goes ahead, then the team earning most bonus points will go through unless there is an outright winner. If it is rained out, then Namibia will qualify as the highest ranked of the two sides. Not an ideal start to the competition.
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Elsewhere, Kenya's other Associate rivals are having mixed results in their warm up games. Scotland have just completed a tour of the West Indies, and though they did manage to register one win over Barbados, lost five out of their six matches. For Scotland though, this is an out of season tour, and will be used largely to gain experience and an understanding of the rigours of touring. By the time they come to play Kenya at the beginning of next year, they will have also played nine matches in the English domestic league, and will be a much more polished outfit.
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Holland, Kenya's next opponents arrive in Nairobi to play an One Day match against Kenya 'A' on Sunday, and then the four day Intercontinental Cup match starting on Wednesday 29th. The Dutch arrive fresh from a partially successful tour of South Africa where they did manage to secure two 5 wicket wins against provincial sides, though also suffered some heavy losses. Like Kenya, Holland seem to revolve around their bowling, and have had troubles with the top order failing. It will be very interesting to see how they perform against Kenya 'A', and with the recent performances of the senior side, some of the Kenyan players in that match will be out to impress the selectors as well. Kenya badly needs to find a strong player to bolster it's top order, as well as another bowler or two, and Sunday is the perfect opportunity for the youngsters to show what they can do.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello. Kenya A playes its first game in ages on Sunday. Any idea who is going to make the squad. Is this going to be another case of selectors favouring players from Nairobi region? Why cant the selectors pick 11 best players available to us instead of basing selection wholly on players fron the capital? Isnt it about time talent from Coast Province gets recognized? namely Amit Bhudia, Rashmi Gami?

Chemosit said...

Hi Shaneabbas,
Squad named - see post, but no coast players from what I see. Neither Amit or Rashmi are in - no word from selectors yet as to why...