Another game in the World cup where an associate team is playing a full member. After losing heavinly in their first game, Kenya would be hoping for beeter things from the game versus Pakistan. They might well have be en hoping that it was the Pakistan B team who turned up for the match.
Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat. That decision didn’t look the best one when after 7 overs they only had 12 on the board for the loss of 2 wickets. The innings was put back together by Kamran Akmal (55) and Younis Khan (50) who raised the rate to a more acceptable level. Their good work was continued by Misbah ul Haq (65) and Umar Akmal (71).
Those four lifted the total to 289 for 6. Some boundaries in the last couple of overs took the Pakistan total to 317-7. After the four batsmen mentioned, wides was a major contribution to the total with 37. Many deliveries went down the leg side, past the keeper for 4.
The best two bowlers for Kenya were Odoyo with figures of 7-2-41-3 and Ngoche with 10-0-46-1.
So Kenya had a major task in front of them to get 318 to win at a rate of 6.35 per over.
Unfortunately the only major contribution came from Collins Obuya with 47. Ouma, Waters and Tikolo were the only other batsmen to get into double figures. Kenya lost wickets steadily to be bowled out for 112.
The standout bowling performance for Pakistan came from the Captain Shahid Afridi who had figures of 8-3-16-5.
It’s often said that the same Pakistan team never turn up twice in a row. With this very impressive performance to win this match by a massive 205 runs it will be interesting to see how they fare against higher class opposition.
peterjfield 