Kenya have fought back well in the last session after tea at Nairobi Gymkhana to take 4 Dutch wickets. Ashish Karia made the initial breakthrough, begging the question as to why he was not bowled sooner. Ongondo clean bowled Reekers for the fourth wicket of the session after Kervezee was run out by the captain, Tikolo. It seems strange that despite the majority of the wickets coming from seamers, it took 70 odd overs for Karia to be brought into the attack, and that neither he nor Rajesh Bhudia who took the first wicket were given a second spell. To me this is a vast under utilisation of resources that could have seen the Dutch already bowled out. As it is, they go into day 2 on 7-326. All in all, Kenya will be happy with how things went after tea, when it looked like the visitors were going to walk away with the match. If the Kenyan bowlers can pick up the last three wickets cheaply tomorrow, the first inning's lead and the match is still very much to play for. If Holland can bat for another hour or so, it will be the Kenyans looking back on missed opportunities. From Holland's point of view, they will be very happy with ten Doeschate's 158, but will probably go into tonight ruing not having achieved more in the afternoon, when the game looked there for the taking. With the match fairly even going into the second day, it should be another riveting day's play at Nairobi Gymkhana tomorrow.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
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3 comments:
You hit the nail on the head Nick, I feel Steve has no faith in his bowlers at all. Why did he go on for so long when he did not pick up a wicket at all and was largely ineffective and keeping the runs down until Ashish had managed to get a few wickets. Infact Steves figures at one stage where 15overs for 62 runs. Which makes it at roughly 4 an over. Why wasnt Bhudia brought in earlier when he had some success? Why was Ashish held back till the 70th over? And im not a betting man but i wont put it past Steve to have Tanmay Mirsha bat at number 7 yet again. Why does all this happen?
An interesting first day. It would appear the Dutch just have the edge, particularly with the news that Modi has a broken finger and is unlikely to bat. I must admit that the decision to drop Kennedy was a puzzling one as Kenya's batting line up lacks experience. I would have considered dropping him down to the middle order in the longer form of the game to give him a break after keeping. I read somewhere that Ravi Shah had retired - is this true? I know he has a long term knee injury, but surely his retirement would have been more newsworthy. I think Collins will benefit from bowling in a first class match, a longer spell could help him regain some of his confidence. Hopefully Kenya can finish the Dutch off early tomorrow and Ouma,Patel and Mishra can get stuck in to the Dutch bowling.
Modi's injury may be the catalyst that brings Mishra up the order. A very frustrating day all round that. I suppose a captain has his perogatives, and we should wait the final outcome, but like you Shaneabbas, I confess myself somewhat mystified.
I agree about Kennedy and Collins Anon.
I think Ravi will find it exceedingly hard to come back to competetive cricket after being away so long injured. If he has retired, it was forced due to injury. A great loss to Kenya.
Let's hope day 2 brings us more joy!
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