Youth Leads Kenya's Fightback

Just glancing over the scorecard from the first three days of this Intercontinental Cup match, I noticed one very exciting feature. That is that both Kenya's fightbacks have been lead by the younger players in the side. With the bat it was 19-year old Tanmay Mishra with 83 not out who top-scored, then still reletively young Collins Obuya (25yrs old) with 43 and thirdly young bowler Nehemiah Odhiambo (22, turning 23 next week) with 38. In short, it was the youth who rescued the Kenyan innings after the experienced players had mostly slipped up.

In the first Canadian innings, all the bowlers chipped in, but in the second it was the two youngsters who really stood out. Nehemiah Odhiambo stood up and repayed the selectors faith in him by not only bowling centurion Geoff Barnett, but also running through the rest of the line up to finish with 5-54. A great effort, and one that should cement his place in the team for a while at least. Not only was Odhiambo amongst the wickets, but also Hiren Variaya on his First Class debut who played a vital support role taking 3-27. That these two players were able to bring the match back within Kenya's grasp cannot be understated. Where so much criticism of Kenya has questioned what would happen without the senior players, it seems that the younger players have, this match at least, provided a satisfactory answer.

In a couple of hours, we will see Kenya's most experienced player step out to attempt to win us the match. It is way beyond time for the older members in the team to pull their weight this match, and there is none better than the captain. If both the youth and experience can fire on day 4, we may yet taste victory.