Zimbabwe limp home against Kenya
The Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell won the toss in the opening match of the LG Cup and put Kenya in to bat
Anand Vasu
26-Sep-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.