Kenya cricket players in past action.[Photo/Capitalfm]
Kenya suffered a devastating 243 runs loss to New Zealand in their second match of the ICC U19 World Cup in Christchurch, New Zealand yesterday.
The hosts, who were buoyed by a fervent crowd set out to bat first after winning the toss and put in a mammoth 436/4 on the board in their allotted overs.
Jakob Bhula (180 off 144 balls) was the destroyer for the Black Caps as he, alongside Rachin Ravindra (117 off 101 balls) were the players to post centuries on the board including an incredible 18 boundaries and eight sixes.
Jimmy Kamande’s charges seemed to have suffered stage fright as most of their balls just did not click during the opening innings. The opening pair of Ravindra and Bhula steered the scores up before the former was later dismissed following a stump by Kenya’s Ankit Hirani off a delivery by all-rounder Sukhdeep Singh inside the 35.5th over.
Quick wicket falls were to later hit New Zealand including the impressive Bhula who was run out by Thomas Ochieng’. Skipper Kaylum Boshier endured a torrid outing as he was run out by Jasraj Kundi in the first ball he was facing on the crease and left without posting a single run.
However, wicketkeeper/batsman Finn Allen gave a decent performance on the day when he ended up third highest scorer (90 off 40 balls) before being ejected by Aveet Desai’s catch off Kundi’s delivery.
On resumption, Kenya had the enviable task of chasing a score total of 437 while attempting to protect their wickets. Aman Gandhi, who suffered a scare three days ago when he got a bouncer hit his helmet, was the biggest run-getter for Kenya as he posted (63 off 106 balls) including six boundaries.
Ochieng’ (39 off 47 balls) and Desai (28 off 69 balls) were the other decent scorers for Kenya who only managed scores of 193/4 at the close of their overs.