Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Battle resumes

After a brief lay-off from International matches during December, the national team are back in action again today as the campaign for the World Cup begins its next phase. Scotland are the opposition and Mombasa Sports club is the venue. Those of you in Mombasa, get yourselves down to the ground and give the team some support.
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It should be a tough battle. Kenya are seen by many as the favourites for this tri-series, which also includes Canada. We have the home ground advantage and won our ODIs vs other Associates 5-0 in 2006 - two of these against Canada away. Scotland cannot be underestimated however, and many in Europe believe they, along with Ireland are one of the top two Associates. Hopefully we can set them right about that.
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The Scots come off the most recent competetive cricket having drawn their Intercontinental cup game against the UAE last week, but the Kenyans have been in intensive training over the last month, so should be fit and ready to go.
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Players to watch:
For Kenya: Steve Tikolo & Ravindu Shah will be key with the bat and Thomas Odoyo and Hiren Varaiya with the ball.
For Scotland: Neil McCallum comes off a Century in his first innings against the UAE (Kenya will be hoping he lives up to his initials: NFI) and Captain Craig Wright is a tough all rounder. MSC is traditionally a spinner's pitch, so Scotland's most threatening bowler will probably be one of Ross Lyons or Glen Rogers.
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For those not in Mombasa who want to follow the match, Cricket Europe will be providing live coverage.

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