Zimbabwe limp home against Kenya

Anand Vasu

September 26, 1999

The Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell won the toss in the opening match of the LG Cup and put Kenya in to bat. Kennedy Otieno and Ravindu Shah opened the batting for Kenya and played the Zimbabwe medium-pacers steadily. Debutant Mutendera and Neil Johnson did not trouble the Kenyan batsmen. Ravindu Shah was in particularly good form, and played the ball well through the gaps. Otieno struggled to score freely and was dismissed by Johnson after he had made 7.

Steve Tikolo joined Ravindu Shah out in the middle and the two put on a good partnership. Ravindu Shah did a bulk of the scoring, driving magnificently through the off-side, pulling the ball effortlessly and cutting the ball with authority. The boundaries flowed off his bat while at the other end the Kenyans struggled to get the scoring going. The partnership between Tikolo and Shah was worth 100 runs when a mix-up in calling resulted in Tikolo being run out. Tikolo had made 33 in the partnership of 100. After Tikolo's dismissal none of the other Kenyans really got going.

Hitesh Modi was steady in his innings of 31. Maurice Odumbe was given out LBW to a ball from Campbell that looked like it was going well down leg-side. From this point onwards, Kenya lost wickets at regular intervals in trying to push the scoring rate. Ravindu Shah was brilliantly caught by Guy Whittall off his own bowling. Shah hit the ball straight back at the bowler and Whittall plucked the ball out of the air. Shah had made a sparkling 71 that included 11 boundaries. Kenya ended up with 199 for 8 off their allotted 50 overs. A score that looked a trifle small on this track.

Martin Suji and Thomas Odoyo began briskly to Neil Johnson and Grant Flower. Both Kenyan openers worked up a good pace. Johnson and Flower played confidently and stroked the ball well off the square. Ababu was brought on to bowl his gentle medium pacers first change and had success immediately. The lack of pace deceived Johnson, who dragged the ball back onto his stumps. Alistair Campbell came ion next and looked in ominous form. He helped himself to 3 boundaries and one glorious six before he overbalanced to an off-break from Odumbe and was stumped. The ball from Odumbe turned sharply off the track and Campbell was beaten all ends up. Campbell had made 27.

Murray Goodwin came in at the fall of Campbell's wicket and took charge of the game. Goodwin and Andy Flower systematically took the game away from the Kenyans. Mohammad Shiekh, bowled his left arm spinners erratically and was punished by both batsmen. He bowled too many short deliveries and was regularly pulled to the on-side fence. When Andy Flower was finally dismissed playing a lazy stroke, Zimbabwe were comfortably positioned at 181 for 4 off 40.2 overs. Flower hit a ball from Tikolo to Ababu at mid-on, who completed the catch easily. Goodwin continued to stroke the ball freely and watched in surprise as wickets began to fall around him.

Stuart Carlisle was declared caught behind after consulting the third-umpire in dubious fashion. Firstly, the ball appeared to be far away from the bat and secondly, it did not look like the wicketkeeper had gathered the ball cleanly. Shortly after, Hitesh Modi took a good reflex catch at silly-point to send Blignaut on his way. The match came down to the last over, with Zimbabwe needing 3 runs to win, with 3 wickets in hand. Goodwin stroked the ball to mid-on and a fumble allowed the batsmen to scamper through for the 3 winning runs.

Goodwin was unbeaten on 76 and was rightly adjudged man of the match.

Zimbabwe had made heavy weather of a simple run chase.

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Matches

Kenya v Zimbabwe at Nairobi (Gym)

Series/Tournaments

LG Cup

Teams

Kenya

Zimbabwe