NPCA Fixtures 50 Over League Week 4

9th.Aug	Super	Simba Union 'A'	Kanbis 'A'	Simba Union
	Super	Kanbis 'B'	SCLYL 'A'	Eastleigh High
	Super	Sir Ali 'A'	Swamibapa 'A'	Sir Ali Club
	Super	Telca	Stray Lions 'A'	Ngara Sports Club
	I	Nbi Jafferys	Kongonis Dev	Nbi Jafferys
	I	Swamibapa 'B'	Nbi Gymkhana	Nairobi Club
	I	Premier	Nbi Nookers 'A'	Premier Club
	I	Ruaraka 'A'	Ngara	Ruaraka
	II	Goan Institute 'A'	Aga Khan	Goan Institute
	II	Qutbis	Golden XI	Seifee Park
	II	SCLYL 'B'	Simba Union 'B'	Pindolia Academy
	II	Stray Lions 'B'	Sir Ali 'B'	Peponi School
	III	Parklands	Goan Institute 'B'	Parklands Sports
	III	Oshwal XI	Nbi Nookers 'B'	Highridge Primary
	III	Women's XI	Ruaraka 'B'	Jamhuri High
	III	Aaryan	Bye	Bye

Karura Forest win Nairobi junior development tournament

Organiser Joseph Angara writes:

The mini cricket brought together 5 schools all from nairobi namely Westlands Primary, Karura Forest, Muranga Road, Roysambu and the host Highridge Primary School. Each school was represented by 12 kids and i kept 4 girls in each team, so there were a total of 60 kids playing on the day.

They played 8 overs per side and every school played 4 games. The top two went to the finals but we could not play the 3rd and 4th place because of time.

Karura and Highridge played in the very exciting finals. Karura got 50 runs batting first and ended up the winners as Highridge lost needing 2 runs off the last ball.

Alan Sang of Karura was the Player of the tournament, Jane Achieng of Highridge best fielder and Alan Mbuthia of Westlands was the best bowler.

3rd place went to Westlands, Muranga took 4th and Roysambu 5th position.

Menengai Primary win Cricket Kenya Rift Valley Junior Tournament

Menengai Primary School defeated Nakuru Day by 1 run to win the Cricket Kenya Rift Valley Province Junior Cricket tournament played at Nakuru Athletics Club. Menengai scored 61 runs for eight wickets -the target that favorites Nakuru failed to reach. The side needed eight runs in the last over with three wickets in hand failed to do that as Gideon Kipmgeno picked two wickets and forced a run out before Fanuel failed to score two runs of the last ball.
Yusuf Mwangi and George Owino top scored for Menengai with 18 and 16 runs respectively with Hussein Mohammed picking two wickets in the innings.

However, Nakuru Day girls team revenged and defeated Menengai girls by 5 wickets in the girls final also played at the same venue. Ruth Keiro scored a quick fire 21 to achieve the set target of 54 even after Laura Adhiambo had picked three wickets. Daniella Talong had scored 20 for Menengai. Joan Njeri from St. Joseph was voted the best player of the tournament.
St. Joseph was third in the boys with the girls team also being third.

The following were also voted best players:
1. Best Batter (B) –Hamisi Juma (Nakuru)
2. bowler (B)- Charles Amusama (Menengai)
3. Batter (G)- Ruth Keiro (Nakuru)
4. Bowler (G)- Laura Adhiambo (Menengai)
5. Fielder –Marvin Shimenga (Menengai)
6. MVP (B) –Yusuf Mwangi (Menengai)
7. MVP (G) –Joan Njeri (St. Joseph)

The tournament was organised by Cricket Kenya Rift Valley Province Development Officers David Asiji and Joseph Somba. National Ladies team wicketkeeper Maria Aimee was also in attendance to give the new girls morale.

Report courtesy of Dun Okinyo

Kennedy Otieno out as Cricket Kenya increase bowling options

Veteran batsman Kennedy Otieno (right) has been left out of Kenya's squad to play Canada in the Intercontinental Cup and One Day series with his place to be taken by seamer Alfred Luseno. No other changes have been made to the side that played Ireland with England based batsman Seren Waters retaining his spot.

With almost all of the other national team players in great touch in the NPCA league, it is perhaps not surprising that there are so few changes. That Kenya are taking an extra bowler also indicates that they are focussed on winning the Intercontinental Cup match - a task that will require them to bowl their hosts out twice. One player for whom this tour will bring back fond memories is Hiren Varaiya who burst onto the scene against Canada by taking a wicket with his very first ball there. He has a great record against the North Americans and having been the most improved Kenyan player in the most recent ICC rankings should be hopeful of a starting spot, despite being left out against Ireland in the longer format.

The full squad has been updated in the sidebar.

Time to walk the walk

Maurice Odumbe has done plenty of talking about playing cricket again and playing for Kenya again. Well his ban is now over as once again pointed out by the Nation and so he is free to play from today. According to the article, Cricket Kenya have left the door open for him if, just like anyone else, he can prove himself at club level first.

Now he can play again, the time for talking is over so he will have to either put up or shut up. No news yet though on which club he will be turning out for, but whoever he does represent, I would be surprised if there are not several youngsters around who will provide plenty of competition.

So long as things are now kept on the pitch, all the best to him.

Latest ICC ODI rankings see some changes for Kenyans

There is plenty of movement of national team players in the latest ICC rankings which were updated yesterday.
After a disappointing series in Ireland, there were both winners and losers among the Kenyan team, but on the whole those who lost were generally the ones that got the fewest chances.

Peter Ongondo - Still Kenya's top ranked player despite slipping 1 place to 30th in the bowling rankings.
Hiren Varaiya was Kenya's biggest gainer - climbing 10 places with the bat and 6 with the ball.
Tikolo remains our highest placed batsman but Alex Obanda is fast closing in...

Players are listed below in order of ranking in either batting or bowling with the best at the top (changes to June rankings/poins are in brackets.)Ranking is listed before the discipline:

1. Peter Ongondo: (-1) 30th bowling (-10) 569; (-1) 208th Batting (-2) 226; (-6) 70th All Round (-3) 129
2. Thomas Odoyo: (+4) 48th bowling (+2) 502; (-8) 91st Batting (-14) 421; (-1) 25th All Round (-7) 211
3. Hiren Varaiya: (+6) 53rd bowling (+19) 492; (+10) 165th Batting (+1) 281; (+1) 63rd All Round (+6) 138
4. Steve Tikolo: (-5) 60th batting (-17) 491; (+7) 67th bowling (?) 446; (=)23rd All Round (=) 219
5. Alex Obanda (+9) 69th batting (+26) 469
6. Collins Obuya: (+8) 89th batting (+30) 426
7. Jimmy Kamande: (-11) 98th bowling (-21) 380; (-9) 129th batting (-14) 380; (-15)72nd All Round (-13) 127
8. Nehemiah Odhiambo: (-2) 111th bowling (-4) 326; (+12) 174th batting (+23) 263
9. Maurice Ouma: (-4) 121st batting (=) 351
10. Kennedy Otieno (+4) 126th batting (+8) 338
11. David Obuya (-3) 129th batting (+5) 335
12. Lameck Onyango (-6) 134th bowling (-3) 283; (-8) 291st batting (-2) 153
13. Seren Waters (-10) 169th batting (-4) 273
14. Rajesh Bhudia (-7) 185th bowling (-3) 200; (-13) 186th batting (-4) 251
15. Elijah Otieno (-10) 218th bowling (-3) 170; (-15) 337th batting (-2) 105
16. Rakep Patel (-22) 299th bowling (-1) 26; (-1) 329th batting (+9) 112

More on the new National Coach saga

While we wait to hear who Cricket Kenya decide on to lead the team up to the next World Cup, rumour continues to abound. Richard Mwangi in a recent article stated that the 5 shortlisted candidates were being flown out to Kenya for interviews. In fact what is happening is that one of the shortlisted candidates offered to come and make a presentation in Kenya as to his views and plans for Kenyan cricket. Cricket Kenya intended to use this trip as an opportunity to interview that candidate while the other candidates will either be interviewed by phone or by Samir Inamdar when he travels to England on ICC business later in August.

Inamdar confirms that CK have shortlisted 5 possible candidates from an initial application pool of around 20. CK will not however release names at this stage so there is no way of knowing if any of the previously touted candidates are genuinely in contention. The most recent rumour from the Times of India is that Anshuman Gaekwad has been linked with the post. Previously both Balwinder Sandhu and Allan Butcher were thought to be the preferred candidates.

In terms of Martin Suji acting as coach for the Canada tour, Inamdar has this to say: "We had already decided that Martin Suji who was assistant coach under Andy Kirsten would be the preferred coach for this tour. He has been with the team for about a year and a half."

Suji is a good choice to lead the team to Canada, but even should he do a great job, it seems that we will still have a coach from abroad taking over. Hopefully CK will make the decision before Kenya's next international fixtures, time is already getting increasingly short...

NPCA 50 Over League 2009 Week 3 Results

NPCA LEAGUE	50 OVERS League	Week 3
SUPER DIVISION
Swamibapa 'A'	Kanbis 'A'	Premier	Swamibapa 'A'
161 All Out	146 All Out		Won by 15 Runs
Maurice Ouma - 53	Rakep Patel - 57
Shem Obada - 34	Arvind Halai - 30
Harish Varsani - 3/27	Elijah Otieno - 3/29
Rajesh Varsani - 2/5	Peter Ongondo - 2/19
Kanbis 'B'	Telca	Eastleigh	Telca Won by
217 / 8 Wkts	269 / 8 Wkts		52 Runs
Gopal - 46*	Thomas O - 66
Harshil - 31*	Alex O - 40
Nelson Odhiambo - 3/32	Rohit V - 2/40
Thomas O - 1/18	Vipul K - 2/63
SCLYL 'A' t	Sir Ali 'A'	Pindolia	Sir Ali 'A' won by
207 All Out	243 / 9 Wkts		34 runs
Rahul N - 37	Aslam Raza - 70
Sunil K - 31	Mohammed T - 51
Aslam Raza - 5/35	Mahendra S - 2/29
Shiraz Ali - 2/36	Mansukh H - 2/38
DIVISION ONE
Kongonis Dev	Nbi Gymkhana	Nbi Club	Kongonis Dev
279 / 6 Wkts	268 / 9 Wkts		Won by 11 Runs
Adrian Zagaritis - 90	Nihir Patel - 78
Dominic Wesonga - 84	Devesh Patel - 51
Devesh Patel - 1/27	Matthew Rudd - 5/29
Dil Patel - 1/29	Silas - 1/22
Nbi Jafferys '	Nbi Nookers 'A	Jafferys	Nbi.Jafferys Won
278 / 8 Wkts	148 All Out		by 130 Runs
Ngara	Premier	Ngara	Premier Won by
195 All Out	278 All Out		83 Runs
Ruaraka 'A'	Swamibapa 'B'	Ruaraka	Swamibapa 'B'
91 All Out	94 / 3 Wkts		Won by 7 Wkts
Manoj Asani - 30	Shashikant - 41
Maina - 20	David Tikolo - 19*
Mukesh - 5/28	Manoj Asani - 1/9
Prakash - 3/11	Mansukh - 1/17
DIVISION TWO
Golden XI	Aga Khan	Aga Khan	Aga Khan Won
181 All out	Aga Khan Won		by 67 Runs
Kamlesh - 51	Moez P - 72
Mitesh - 15	Micheal Kibe - 30
Keval Patel - 4/21	Amit P - 5/32
Omondi Suji - 2/17	Varghese - 3/19
Qutbis	Goan Institute 'A'	Seifee	Qutbis Won by
268 / 7 Wkts	208 All Out		60 Runs
Stray Lion 'B'	Simba Union 'B'	Peponi	Stray Lions 'B'
329 / 9 Wkts	249 All Out		Won by 80 Runs
Jimmy K - 151	Hitesh P - 90
Altaf - 31	Lucas - 44
Raju Limbani - 4/48	Jimmy K - 6/54
Lucas - 2/55	Altaf - 2/43
DIVISION THREE
Goan Institute 'B'	Nbi Nookers 'B'	G.I.	Nbi.Nookers 'B'
110 All Out t	111 For 3 Wkts		111 For 3 Wkts
Sawan Desai - 35	Manoj - 50
Guruvinder - 16	Boniface - 16
Manoj - 4/20	Vishal - 2/25
Gopinath - 2/9	Murtaza - 1/16
Parklands	Ruaraka 'B'	Parklands	Parklands Won
164/4 Wkts	162 All Out		by 6 Wkts
Aaryan	Oshwal XI	Jamhuri	Aaryans Won by
325 / 8 Wkts	84 All Out		241 Runs
Kalpesh - 63	Ketul - 14*
Bernard - 61	Joseph - 5/9
Josphat - 3/46	Jignesh - 2/8
Mehul - 2/42
Women's XI Bye

Sixes Fly at 'Cradle of Cricket'

Report by Topspinner:

TEN sixes were lofted over the Broadhalfpenny Down boundary when the touring Kenya Kongonis cricket team met Brigands CC at the famous 'cradle of cricket' venue near Hambledon, Hampshire, UK, on Sunday. Half of these came from the bat of Neil Trestrail, who has led several MCC teams to Kenya, with 64 not out, the others from Mark Brearey (78 not out), during an unbroken sixth wicket stand of 152.

On a true pitch but one with an initially slow outfield after incessant rain on Saturday, Brigands felt they had Kongonis on the rack at 88 for 5 after 30 overs, but after lunch Trestrail and Brearey opened up and the sizeable crowd of spectators had to take cover as the ball was struck emphatically over all parts of the picturesque hill-top ground.

Kongonis captain David Waters, who was recently awarded an MBE by the Queen for his services to cricket - and much else - in Kenya, and is father of Kenya player Seren Waters, declared on 240 for 5 (55 overs).

Brigands, a largely naval outfit, were always going to find it hard to meet the target and were soon one down with only two runs on the board. But by tea they had reached 57 for 1 from 17 overs and shortly thereafter were 82 for 1 from 20. In the last session they put on a further 139 runs for the loss of five more wickets to total 221 for 7 and play out for an honourable draw - bringing to a satisfactory conclusion their Golden Jubilee Cricket Week.

Swamibapa edge Kanbis as bowlers dominate Super Division contest

Swamibapa Cricket Club A Team (16 points) edged Kanbis Sports Club A Team (4 points) by 15 runs in a nail biting finish at Premier Club yesterday in a top of the table clas umpired by by Subhash Modi and Rockie Demello.

Swamibapa Cricket Club won the toss and elected to bat first, but only managed to score 161 runs, all out in 43 overs. The top scorers for Swamibapa were Maurice Ouma (53), Shem Obado (34) and Peter Ongondo (28). Pick of the bowlers for Kanbis were Harish Jesani who took 3/27, Nilesh Varsani (2/25) and Rajesh Varsani who finished up with a very tidy 2/5.

Having done the hard work with the ball, Kanbis should have put Swamibapa to bed, but an inspired effort in the field saw them for just 146 in 41 overs - 15 runs shy of Swamibapa's total.

Rakep Patel (57) pictured followed up his century from last week well but other than Arvind Halai (30) who also batted well for Kanbis, did not receive the support needed against an attack boasting 7 seamers. Bowling honours were shared by Swamibapa with Elijah Otien0 (3/29) picking up the most wickets, though Lameck Onyango (2/21), Peter Ongondo (2/19), and Joseph Angra (1 wicket for 1 run) all impressed.

This win puts Swamibapa in a commanding position at the top of the table as Stray Lions did not play this weekend. It is still early in the season and Kanbis are not the sort of team to just fade quietly into the sunset, but just maybe will this be Swamibapa's year?