Ireland Bounce Back With Impressive Kenya Win

Ireland 285-6 (K O'Brien 83, Tikolo 2-43) beat
Kenya 199 (Kamande 42, Cusack 3-29) by 86 runs
Associates Tri-Nation ODI Series Game 2, Nairobi

Ireland bounced back from their heavy loss to Zimbabwe to beat Kenya by 86 runs in a rain-affected One Day International in Nairobi.

The match was the second in the Associates Tri-Nations ODI series and after Kevin O'Brien's bruising half-century had inspired Ireland to reach 285 for six in 47 overs, Kenya were bowled out for 199 in 44 overs.

O'Brien smashed 83 from 52 balls with five sixes having come to the crease with Ireland on 110 for four in the 27th over. Captain William Porterfield (41) and Andrew White (40) both got starts but couldn't go on leaving O'Brien to put Ireland in a winning position.

Kenya captain Steve Tikolo's off-spin accounted for two wickets, while Lameck Onyango, Jimmy Kamande and Hiren Varaiya picked up one apiece.

Seren Waters, making his ODI debut for Kenya, stroked 41 to get the run chase off to a steady start before Boyd Rankin (1-30), Regan West (2-35) and Kyle McCallan (1-50) slowed their progress with the key wickets of Kennedy Otieno (15), Rakep Patel (six) and Tikolo (14).

Waters was out in the 18th over when he was caught and bowled by West and as Kenya fell further and further behind the required run rate, Maurice Ouma (34) and Thomas Odoyo (23) were bowled by Andre Both and Alex Cusack.

Kamande hit out, striking three fours in a punchy innings of 42 but the next three batsmen fell for single figure scores to hand Ireland a handsome win.

© Cricket World 2008

Kenya Tri-Nation Tournament 2008/09 Table

			P	W	L	NR	BP	Pts	NetRR
1		Zimbabwe	1	1	0	0	1	5	3.120
2		Ireland	2	1	1	0	1	5	-0.722
3		Kenya	1	0	1	0	0	0	-1.830