Kenya rout Afghanistan to win series 2-1
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kenya-c752 beat Afghanistan by eight wickets to win the three-match series 2-1 at the Nairobi Gymkhana Ground on Monday. The game saw Afghanistan collapse for the second time in the series and in turn, allow the hosts to run away with the game.
Rather surprisingly, Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first. This was surprising given that batting first has been difficult in the series and the sides batting second have had a distinct advantage of the track playing much better than in the first
half.
However, for some time in the first innings, the Afghanistan side seemed to have taken the right decision as the opening partnership of Javed Ahmadi and Karim Sadiq added 50 together for the first wicket. Ahmadi made a swashbuckling 35 that came off only 34
balls, and the pair put on 53 off 9.4 overs before Sadiq went for 17.
Kenyan captain Jimmy Kamande then sent Ahmadi back in the same over through a run-out while Noor-ul-Haq by Thomas Odoyo for a duck to peg the side back to 54/3. All of a sudden, Afghanistan had lost three wickets for one run.
Captain Nowroz Mangal was the fourth batsman out without bothering the scorers too much while Ashghar Stanikzai (1) was consumed by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mirwais-Ashraf-c1971 stalled the Kenyan progress a little with 18 and 17 respectively, but
once they let, it was 118/7 and the side was in big trouble.
It took some lusty hitting by Afghanistan’s best cricketer, Mohammad http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nabi-c78373 to take them closer to a target their bowlers would like. Nabi hogged much of the strike in the 35-run partnership for the eighth wicket and slapped a 69-ball 60 to take the side to a
much better 188 all out in 46.3 overs. The wickets were evenly shared between the Kenyan bowlers, and all but the captain Kamande got at least one wicket.
In reply, Afghanistan’s only hope was to get some quick wickets at the start of the innings. David Obuya was sent back by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Collins-c51521
Obuya. Both the batsmen got to half centuries and in the end, guided their team to such a facile victory that it is hard to imagine that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745 had actually gone into the series with a chance to win it 3-0.
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