By sportsnewsarena correspondent
Dec 03, 2017
Emmanuel Bundi warmed up for the ICC World Cricket League Championship showdown with Scotland later this week with five-wicket haul as Kenya cricket team beat United States of America (USA) by four wickets.
This was the first match of the two build up matches at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. Stadium, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Kenya is set to play Scotland in the crucial matches on Wednesday and Friday in Dubai.
And Bundi had an ideal dress rehearsal for the matches by taking five wickets for 25 runs as Kenya bowled out US for 63 runs across on a slow batting surface runs across 33 balls.
The toss was always going to be vital given the green nature of the wicket, and being summarily inserted by Kenya after Rakep Patel called correctly the US were on the back foot immediately.
Kenyan bowlers made early use of the conditions by bowling testing lines with Bundi calling the shots.
Syed Abdullah, US’ top scorer against Nepal, was trapped in front from the first ball of the match by Nehemiah Odhiambo, and things only got worse.
Ravi Timbawala chipped one to square leg in the next over, whilst Sagar Patel was dismissed in the fourth over off Bundi leaving the US reeling at 8 for 3.
Ibrahim Khaleel and Camilus Alexander then combined for the largest partnership of the innings – unfortunately it was only worth 16 runs, signifying how tough it was in the middle.
Double figures
Only Timil Patel and Adil Bhatti made it to double figures, and the US were bundled out for 63 in the 19th over with Bundi bagging his fifth.
In reply, Kenya lost its first two wickets after 5.2 overs with 34 runs on the scoreboard – a blistering start in the context of the match.
When Alex Obanda hit three boundaries in the third over, things looked bleak for US.
Even when Adhil Bhatti had Obanda caught, Kenya was still strong favorites, before a flurry of wickets gave US hope; 34/1 turned into 42/3, before 44/4 became 52/6.
Dhiren Gondaria (14), Irfan Karim (1), Rakep Patel (3) and Collins Obuya (5) had all been returned back to the pavilion thanks to the slow wicket that made the US bowlers run through the Kenyan defense with so much ease.
In the context of this extraordinary encounter, Obanda’s 26 from 22 balls was a mammoth total scored at an electric rate with five boundaries at a strike rate of 118.18.
With over 33 overs to play, Kenya were requiring 12 runs with four wickets in hand. Nelson Odhiambo and Gurdeep Singh were however able to stand the wave of the collapse to secure the victory in a stand of six overs.
Kenya next build up match is against Nepal who lost to US by five wickets on Friday.
