Tikolo Shines as Kenya set 225

A magnificent 81 off 85 including 9 fours and a six from Captain Steve Tikolo helped Kenya set Bangladesh a target of 226 to win. It was a seesaw first innings which started tortuosly for the Kenyans as Bangladesh prevented either Maurice Ouma or David Obuya from really troubling the scorers. After this start, it was again left to Hitesh Modi and Steve Tikolo to right the ship, and they did just that with a 95 run partnership. Despite Tikolo and Modi setting the platform, Kenya were unable to capitalise, and some tight bowling by Bnagladesh, especially in the last two overs kept the target to less than 5 an over. While Tikolo deserves most of the credit for Kenya's total, Collins Obuya also did fantastically well to score an unbeaten 45 off 47 deliveries, and Tony Suji blasted a quickfire 30 off 25. To my mind Kenya put the foot down a little too late, especially as they finished with 3 wickets still in hand, but they can be proud of what they did achieve. More than anything, these last two matches have shown that the batsmen are starting to find form with the bat. Excellent news with less than a week to go before the Intercontinental Cup match against Holland. Is 225 defendable with our attack? Unlikely, but we have shown before that we have the ability to defend small targets, so we shall see. Our bowlers will have to be especially tight, and hope to knock over some early wickets.