Odoyo’s lads dare Free State in Kimberley
What you need to know:
- The team is coached by Thomas Odoyo with Peter Ong’ondo as assistant coach.
Kenya’s national men’s cricket team touring South Africa will play their opening game of Africa T20 Cup on Friday against Free State at De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley.
The team is coached by Thomas Odoyo with Peter Ong’ondo as assistant coach.
Kenya’s batting attack will be spearheaded by Irfan Karim who will open with either Dhiren Gondaria or Alex Obanda. The other batsmen in the side are skipper Rakep Patel, Nelson Odhiambo, Collins Obuya, Rushab Patel, Gurdeep Singh and Nehemiah Odhiambo.
Nehemiah Odhiambo will also open bowling with either Nelson Odhiambo or Emmanuel Bundi in the absence of Elijah Otieno, who was dropped from the touring side.
The other bowlers in the team are Shem Ngoche, Lucas Oluoch, Obuya, Rakep and Pushpak Kerai.
Otieno was dropped from the squad together with Karan Kaul, a batsman. This is the third edition of the tournament organised by Cricket South Africa as curtain-raiser to their 2017-18 domestic season.
Thirteen South African Provincial sides and one team each from Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe will fight it out in the tournament.
The teams are grouped into four pools and Kenya is placed in Pool ‘C’ along with Northern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu Natal.
Commenting on the event before leaving for South Africa on Wednesday, Odoyo was hopeful that the boys will qualify for the semi-finals.
After the South African tour, the boys will be expected to fine tune their game for the coming two 50-overs ICC World Cricket League Championship matches against the Netherlands set for Nairobi Gymkhana in October 6 and 8.
The squad: Dhiren Gondaria, Rushab Patel, Irfan Karim, Collins Obuya, Rakep Patel, Gurdip Singh, Nelson Odhiambo, Nehemiah Ngoche, Shem Ngoche, Pushpak Kerai, Lucas Oluoch, Emmanuel Bundi and Alex Obanda.
Thomas Odoyo (coach) and Peter Ongondo (assistant coach).
