Scots fall to the Kenyan sword
Kenya, 178 all out, defeated Scotland, 154 all out, by 24 runs at the Krugersdorp club (WCQ09 Super Eights match), 13 April 2009.
This was the ground where Afghanistan defeated Ireland in a high-scoring game only last Saturday. It’s a pleasant ground, with short straight boundaries and a lightning fast outfield. The pitches on the square were reputed to be low and slow, and to take spin during the afternoon.
The day dawned with more perfectly cloudless skies, and no hint that conditions would be any different from what was expected. An expectant Easter Monday crowd of probably 200 gathered - at least a quarter of the backing Scotland.
But when Kenya elected to bat first, they got off to something of a flyer off, with 20 off Blain’s first two overs. One off Blain’s third was followed by three wickets from his next two - including that of Kenya captain Steve Tikolo (left, caught by Neil McCallum) - interspersed with four more boundaries, at which point he had figures of 3-37 from five overs, with Kenya on 46-3. At the other end, Dewald Nel had bowled with commendable economy, but no wickets.
Craig Wright, the most economical wicket-taking bowler of the previous two games, immediately got his first, Ouma, lbw. And Ryan Watson’s team were looking in command at 51-4 from 11 overs. It was another 18 overs before the fourth wicket fell, Obuya well caught by McCallum at short extra cover off Wright, for 32, Kenya‘s top individual scorer. Only one edged boundary had been scored in that time, and this should have been a platform for a ruthless drive to finish off the Kenyan innings.
Instead, with both Majid Haq and Moneeb Iqbal available to spearhead the spin effort, nothing continued to happen until Blain (pictured right) was brought back, this time from the pavilion end. This inspired Jan Stander to claiming two wickets in consecutive overs, thanks to good catches by Haq and Kyle Coetzer, finishing with an impressive 2-21. Wright had earlier returned excellent figures of 2-15.
Blain got the energetic all-rounder Nehemiah Odhimabo, finishing with 4-59, and Nel (2-25) picked up the tail enders.
Even in retrospect, this was a pretty efficient bowling display by the Scottish bowlers, and Kenya’s total of 178 all out was below the target set by the head coach before the game began, though later people were claiming that it was 25 runs too many.
It really all went wrong for Scotland in the batting, not for the first time. This time, Haq was promoted to open with Gavin Hamilton, and the two reached 30, the highest opening partnership of this tour, before Hamilton became the first to play across the line (possibly because the pitch was slow) and missed (possibly because the ball kept low, as it did frequently).
Five runs later, Haq was the most unfortunate victim of a freak stumping, the wide ball shooting low and rebounding off the wicket-keeper’s pads onto the stumps. So it was now 35-2 in the 12th over.
Watson came and went quickly, this time trapped lbw for 1. And Colin Smith, who opened his account with a straight six, soon got into, and out from, a run-out muddle with Kyle Coetzer: 55-4 in the 17th over.
Coetzer himself was sent back to the pavilion, trapped lbw - another low shooter - by the impressively dreadlocked Odhiambo, the first of his three victims. His second was Neil McCallum, whose normally impregnable front-foot defence was somehow breached, leaving Scotland reeling at 82-6 in the 26th.
At last a batting partnership materialised, as Wright and Stander took the score sensibly to 130 over the next 12 overs, before Wright’s blistering cover drive was very well caught by the athletic Jimmy Kamande, for 23.
Stander now decided it was time to launch his attack on the spinners, but succeeded only in finding Otieno waiting inside the rope. He had top-scored with 27, but had been increasingly constrained by the tight lines of the Kenyan bowling.
And, while Blain hung about for a bit, eventually he and Iqbal also swiped across the ball and the innings was ended 16 balls early on 154. The Kenyans had every right to their celebrations. The Scots had to do some more self-assessment.
Now the World Cup qualifying equation has little left to doubt. Scotland must defeat both Afghanistan and UAE, both games at the larger ODI venue at Benoni, to reach the last four - and probably require to improve their poor net run-rate that might be called into play to decide the qualifiers.
Match report by Mike Stanger
Pictures by Ian Jacobs
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