Kenya went down by 48 runs in their first warm up match against a Titans second string side in Pretoria yesterday.
Batting first, Titans lost opener R Jappie to Thomas Odoyo for just 10 on the board, but then continued to build solid partnerships with M Sekota (57), P Matan (54 off 49) and especially D Weisie (90* off 56) all taking a liking to the Kenyan bowlers.
Pick of the Kenyan bowlers was the pair of Thomas Odoyo (2/40 off 9) and Hiren Varaiya (2/49 off 9).
Jimmy Kamande (1/42 off 9)was probably next best and was the only other Kenyan bowler to take wickets with run outs accounting for Titans other 2 dismissals in their total of 292/7.
Neither Steve Tikolo (0/22 off 5) nor Peter Ongondo (0/28 off 5) took wickets, but at least they were tidy. the same cannot be said for Rajesh Bhudia (0/35 off 4) and Nehemiah Odhiambo (0/75 off 9) who both came in for some heavy treatment from their hosts. Kenyan fans will be hoping they find their radar before the World Cup qualifiers start on April 1st.
Kenya's reply contained several promising starts, but no one other than Jimmy Kamande was able to convert that into a bigger score. Morris Ouma, returned to opener, fell on 47, fellow opener Kennedy Obuya made 26 off 28, Seren Waters tried at 3 made 16, Steve Tikolo contributed 20 and Collins Obuya 38. Only Kamande, who was last man out off the final ball looked like he was capable of chasing down the score and perhaps he could have made it had he come in above Obuya. As it was he can be proud of what was clearly the stand out effort in the Kenyan side with 62 off 49 deliveries. Kenya closed their innings on 244/9.
In context, this was just a warm up game, but it certainly does nothing to dispel any of the worries fans might have had going into the WC Qualifiers where the competition should be stiffer. Hopefully this is just a case of the boys blowing the dust off before they settle down to serious business.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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3 comments:
thanks for providing detailed info. Cricinfo had a very skimpy report on this. I think the friendly match with Scotland on Apr 29 will give a better picture of where this team stands.
agreed. the worry is over the 3rd seamer. Otieno should probably get the nod over Nemi at the moment.
The side they played actually had some very experienced first class players with one even having represented South Africa A at one stage. All the other associates have been playing very weak teams in the warmups, so I dont think this was a disheartening performance at all. Otieno should definitely be getting that third seamers spot, I hope they are not bringing it down to batting, as they already bat to 8.
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