A series of Personal Bests

My round up of the 104 run win in the 3rd ODI between Kenya and Bermuda can be read at here at Cricket Europe - Kenya. One thing does stand out for Kenya other than the fact that we had plenty more to offer than Bermuda and that is that our players are improving almost across the board. Credit to them, Roger Harper and the Winter Training Camp coaches for that.

This tour saw the following players all register personal bests in either first Class (Intercontinental Cup) or ODIs:

I.C:

Thomas Odoyo 5/21

1st ODI:

Nehemiah Odhiambo: 31*

2nd ODI:

Thomas Odoyo 4/25

Nehemiah Odhiambo 2/37

Tanmay Mishra: 64*

3rd ODI:

Steve Tikolo: 111

Malhar Patel: 25

Jimmy Kamande: 3/32

Great to see so many of the team all showing improvement. Sure Bermuda are not the strongest opposition we will face, but these are still official First class and ODI matches and credit to those players who played so well to give us our first ever whitewash on home soil.

All the best too to Maurice Ouma for his recovery.

First Home Series Win

Kenya's 7 wicket win in the second ODI in Mombasa gives Kenya its first ever series win on home soil. It should also silence some of the teams recent critics who have been loudly proclaiming its demise. Both wins against Bermuda were comfortable and Kenya should have enough in the tank to give a couple fo the fringe players a chance to show their worth in the final match. Great to see some of the youngsters really stepping up to the plate and perfoming. Tanmay Mishra got his first ODI half century having come close several times, so now that monkey is off his back, he should be able to really relax and get some big scores. Hiren Varaiya has improved in leaps and bounds this year and gives back that extra edge in the spin department we lost when Collins Obuya fell out of form. Nehemiah Odhiambo has started taking wickets for us and showed he is no slouch with the bat either. If he continues to apply himself and improve, he could well be the next Odoyo for us. Talking of whom, what a great seam of bowling form he is in at the moment. No surprise he and Peter Ongondo are both at the top of the Cricket Europe rankings list for bowlers.

With the World Cup drawing ever closer and also the WCL in January which will decides the associate to qualify for the twenty-20 World Cup, Kenya's key players are beginning to find the form we need. It is now up to Roger Harper to continue to build that momentum through January and into March. All we need now is for a player or two to step up to claim those fringe spots and for the openers to consolidate their progress.

Kenya vs Bermuda 1st ODI

Kenya won the toss and are batting first.
Ouma (0) and Suji (2) the early casualties as we sit on 76/2 after 20.
David Obuya is on 43 and Steve is on 18.

I will be trying to keep abreast of things on the Cricket Europe - Kenya site.

Scores are courtesy of http://www.vipulibs.com/eacricket/

NPCA Latest Results

All the results from the last 2 weekends have now been updated on the Cricket Europe- Kenya site. Kanbis look to be sitting pretty at the top of both the Super Division and Division 1 - with two such strong sides, one wonders if they have any thought of adding a third string team next season. Stray Lions A look to be the team gunning for promotion from Division 2, while Parklands Ndovu's win over Sir Ali B means they now top the table in Division 3.

At the other end of the tables, it is also fairly clear cut as to who looks like going down. Sir Ali Muslim A have a chance of overtaking Kongonis or possible Aga Khan in the Super Division, but SCLYL are pretty much dead and buried at the bottom of division 1. Gymkhana B are the team in danger in Division 2 and look to only have a slight chance of overtaking 6th placed Quitbis. Bottom of Division 3 are Oshwal, but they will be bouyed by their win over Jafferys and with 3 matches still to play could get themselves out of contention for the wooden spoon.

Back

Well sort of. I am at least now back at the keyboard, but in terms of cricket coverage, will be concentrating mostly on Cricket Europe - Kenya for the time being. There are a couple of new articles there from the last couple of days. Thanks for the understanding and support from everyone, it has been much appreciated. In time, I may also get back to blogging with my opinions etc, but not sure yet how things will pan out timewise.

Those of you who I had been in email contact with who have not had an email from me in the last couple of days, it is because I had a stuff-up and lost my address book. It does not mean I am not keen on keeping in touch, so drop me an email if you would like to stay in contact. It would be good to hear from you, especially those club players in Kenya.