Kenya overcome Afghan challenge to go 1-0 up
Kenya beat http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745 Thursday in the first ODI of the three-match series at the Nairobi Gymkhana Ground by 92 runs. With this win, Kenya have taken a 1-0 lead in the series.
Kenya decided to bat first after winning the toss and all of their top four batsmen got starts. Unfortunately for them, the issue was two-fold. None of the top four batsmen managed to convert their starts
into anything substantial and the rest of the batsmen failed to get going.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hamid-Hassan-c1524 finally
broke through with the wicket of Obuya and followed it up with the dismissal of Waters to peg the Kenyan side back to 62/2.
Obuya’s brother http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Collins-c51521 Obuya was then joined by former skipper Steve Tikolo and the pair had a very fruitful stand for the third wicket. The pair added 77 and at one stage the Kenyans were sitting pretty
at 139/2 in the 35th over. The run-rate had picked up really well and at this stage it looked like the Kenyans could get up to around 250 with the batting Powerplay still to be taken.
However, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mirwais-Ashraf-c1971 bowled a rather nagging spell for the Afghanistan side in the last few overs and the Kenyans collapsed hopelessly. In a span of 20 balls, the Kenyans lost six wickets for the addition
of six runs to look like they would not even survive the 50 overs or get to 200. They did neither and were bowled out for 180 in the 47th over. Had it not been for the 27-ball 31 by captain Jimmy Kamande, the side would have looked deeper in trouble.
Afghanistan had been the favourites going into this encounter and with the target being only 181, they looked even bigger favourites to make it 1-0. The opening partnership of Karim Sadiq and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Noor-Ali-Zadran-c2127
added 33 for the first wicket which pushed them to the driver’s seat.
However, it was the dismissal of Sadiq that triggered off a collapse that was as bad as the Kenyan one. Except Zadran, who made 41, none of the other batsmen got to double figures for the Afghanistan side,
and they were bowled out for 80. The Kenyan bowlers shared the wickets and ran home winners by 92 runs. The second ODI of the series will be played on 9 October.
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