
Who would have predicted that: Kenya stun two-time champions West Indies at 1996 World Cup
In our new feature series - Who would have predicted that? – we are looking back at matches where there were big upsets or extraordinary individual performances that turned matches on their head.
Kenya only had one professional cricketer in Steve Tikolo. All others were amateurs and put together as the management scrambled to name a squad for their first World Cup. They had lost all three games before meeting West Indies and Ladbrokes quoted odds of 50-1 on for a West Indies win and 16-1 for Kenya.
West Indies had won their opening match against Zimbabwe, then lost against India and forfeited their game against Sri Lanka in Colombo on security grounds. The bloated structure of the tournament meant that one win in their final two matches would still be enough to see them through to the quarter-finals.
Match Summary
Kenya 166(49.3 Overs) - Hitesh Modi26 (74), Steve Tikolo29 (50); Roger Harper3/15 (10), Courtney Walsh3/46 (9)
West Indies 93(35.2 Overs) - Shivnarine Chanderpaul19 (48), Roger Harper17 (18); Rajab Ali3/17 (7.2), Maurice Odumbe3/15 (10)
Result - Kenya won by 73 runs
Although Hitesh Modi and Thomas Odoyo, at 17 the youngest player in the tournament, added 44 for the seventh wicket, aided by extras, the top scorer with 37, Kenya's 166 seemed to be well short of a defendable score.
Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Dipak Chudasama), 2-19 (Kennedy Otieno), 3-45 (Tariq Iqbal), 4-72 (Maurice Odumbe), 5-77 (Steve Tikolo), 6-81 (Martin Suji), 7-125 (Thomas Odoyo), 8-126 (Tito Odumbe), 9-155 (Hitesh Modi), 10-166 (Aasif Karim)
In reply, West Indies lost two early wickets but were still in a decent position, although they needed a solid innings from Lara. Lara though had come out in a different mood that day.
He batted like a millionaire, flailing his willow at everything. He even survived a run out. But, did not cash in tried a back-foot drive off Rajab Ali off a decent ball outside off stump, managing only a thick edge to keeper Iqbal, who had dropped more than he had caught through the tournament.
From there West Indies fell apart, largely because of Odumbe's 3 for 15 off 10 overs, exploiting a turning pitch, and were bowled out for 93, sliding to a humiliating 73-run defeat.
Fall of wickets: 1-18 (Sir Richie Richardson), 2-22 (Sherwin Campbell), 3-33 (Brian Lara), 4-35 (Keith Arthurton), 5-55 (Shivnarine Chanderpaul), 6-65 (Jimmy Adams), 7-78 (Roger Harper), 8-81 (Sir Curtly Ambrose), 9-89 (Courtney Walsh), 10-93 (Cameron Cuffy)
West Indies went on beat Australia to sneak into the quarter-finals, where they beat South Africa. In the semi-finals, they lost narrowly to Australia. Richardson announced his international retirement six days after the Kenya match. Kenya were thumped by Sri Lanka to end at the bottom of their group.
Teams
Kenya - Dipak Chudasama, Tariq Iqbal (wk), Kennedy Otieno, Steve Tikolo, Maurice Odumbe (c), Hitesh Modi, Martin Suji, Thomas Odoyo, Tito Odumbe, Aasif Karim, Rajab Ali
West Indies - Sherwin Campbell, Richie Richardson (c), Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Keith Arthurton, Jimmy Adams (wk), Roger Harper, Ian Bishop, Sir Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Cameron Cuffy
Match Details
Match: Kenya v West Indies, 20th Match, Wills World Cup, 1996
Date: Thursday, February 29, 1996
Toss: West Indies won the toss and opt to bowl
Venue: Nehru Stadium, Pune
Umpires: Khizer Hayat, V.K.Ramaswamy
Third Umpire: Shyam Bansal
Match Referee: Nawab of Pataudi
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