Cricket
Ouma has colourful debut in front line
Newly appointed Kenya captain Maurice Ouma (L) and captain Steve Tikolo run between the wickets in a past match. Ouma’s face a huge task of trying to rally the team for a win in the Intercontinental Cup match against Ireland. Photo/CHRIS OMOLLO Photo/FILE .
In Summary
- The new captain led with two good partnerships in Kenya’s innings
Kenya fought gallantly against Ireland in their opening match of International Cricket Council Intercontinental Cup that ended in a draw on Monday, marking Morris Ouma’s successful debut outing as the new skipper.
The two teams will now play three one-day international games starting on Thursday. The remaining fixtures will take place over the weekend.
The tournament is played in a round robin format and involves all the top six teams in the World Cup qualifier held in South Africa in April – namely Ireland, Canada, Scotland, the Netherlands, Kenya and Afghanistan.
Zimbabwe will be represented by their A side.
Replaced Tikolo
Ouma, who steered the team for the first time since he replaced Steve Tikolo as captain just a few days before the team departed for Dublin, led from the front.
The Irish had set Kenya a daunting target, 298, in the last day and in reply Kenya scored 245 for eight by the allocated time for the fourth day.
Ireland has been a hard nut to crack for Kenya. They humiliated them last year at the Nairobi Gymkhana when they won the same tournament by an innings and 65 runs, shattering any hopes Kenya had of reaching the final when they only needed a draw.
But they finally achieved that on Monday, although this time round there was nothing at stake.
Ouma led with two good partnerships in both innings.
Contribution
In Kenya’s first innings, he put on a sixth wicket partnership of 108 with his vice-captain, Jimmy Kamande (73), with his contribution of 52.
He was at it again in the second innings when he shared a fifth wicket partnership of 105 with Collins Obuya (84) before he lost his wicket to Peter Connell who clean-bowled him on 37.
Tikolo was at his best with the ball, taking six wickets for 80, his career best, in Ireland’s first innings which they put on a huge score, 404, by the time their last batsman returned to the pavilion.
Only century
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Kenya have retrogressed a little bit - we should be better than Ireland considering that we were miles ahead before. In any case despite the tie and loss in all the one day matches, I think Kenya played well. This is a rebuilding phase. Let's the CK leaders resurrect the local league in all it's forms (50 overs, 20 overs and 4 day) so we can build some talent.
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Well done boys! Ireland is a good side and a draw is a good result. If only our corrupt, arguing Sports leaders put youth structures in place, we can prosper with talent in football, cricket, rugby, swimming, volleyball etc - not just athletics
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