Kenyan batsmen present a sorry sight

By G. Viswanath

BLOEMFONTEIN, OCT. 12. Bob Woolmer could not have dealt with the situation hands-on. He had timed his visit so well to the Goodyear Park on Friday. It was somewhat odd that he was in Kenya's change room, a far cry from the days which ran for five years, when he was part of the South African think tank, nay Hansie Cronje's team and saw his team with highly motivated batsmen and bowlers crush rival teams under their feet.

He was at the India-Kenya match for a totally different purpose. His main objective was to interact with the Kenyans about quickly getting into the business of organising things for them in a methodical manner for the 2003 World Cup.

One of Woolmer's tasks, as a high-performance officer of the ICC, is to deal directly with the African teams, Kenya and Namibia and Holland and Canada and develop their cricket. He must have been in a position to form an opinion about the Kenyans whose cricket only slipped to a new low, which obviously was less attractive than a few games being played by Afrikans speaking kids on the slope adjacent to the dressing rooms.

The Kenyans were in a real plight for the second time in as many matches of the triangular, which is a part of the Summer Spice series. The were shot out for 90, three quarters of an hours before the scheduled interval. The bowlers instrumental in putting the Kenyans in a sorry state of affairs were seamer Ajit Agarkar and leg-spinner Anil Kumble. There were supporting roles played by Javagal Srinath and skipper Sourav Ganguly, who was encouraged to bowl five overs in his first spell following the success of Agarkar and the economical spell bowled by Srinath.

There was no danger of the Kenyans under-cutting the lowest ever in a one-day international match in South Africa. It was almost ten years ago that Pakistan was bowled out for 43 by the West Indies at the Newlands, Cape Town. But the Kenyans must have realised the peril that was ahead of them when Agarkar struck blows after blows and soon Kumble followed suit. It was a better and effective opening spells by Agarkar, one of the most successful bowlers in limited-overs internationals in the last three seasons.

The action started in the last ball of the second over. The Kenyans decided to bat first after winning the toss, but their openers Kennedy Obuya and Ravindu Shah did not make much noise, remaining as circumspect as they were against South Africa in Benoni last Sunday. It was because of the error in direction by Agarkar and Srinath and the latter overstepping twice that credited five extra runs to the Kenyans. But even before the Kenyans got the benefit of the fifth extra, Agarkar had struck in a most clear fashion a batsman can be bowled. Shah closed the face of the bat a trifle soon for the ball to pass between bat and pad and chime the stumps.

Agarkar's wicket No. 2 was similar to No. 1, David Obuya trying to whip the Mumbai seamer to lose his stumps. The biggest blow Agarkar struck was when he invited Steve Tikolo for a drive and had him caught at the wicket by Deep Dasgupta, who was up on his toes and taking the catch close to his chest on the right. It was a fair indication of the bounce Agarkar managed to extract, though the pitch was a trifle slow than the one at the Centurion. There were only a few hundreds at the Goodyear Park, so the celebration of the fall of wickets in the middle became an exclusive event for the Indians and a handful in the dressing room.

Tikolo's dismissal, a big blow

The dismissal of Tikolo meant a big debacle. The Kenyans did not recover from the early strikes of Agarkar who bowled six overs in his first spell for nine runs. Srinath bowled his six for 12. It has become fashionable for captains to effect the first change in the 13th over. The Indian skipper brought himself on from the end Srinath bowled. He was scored of at three an over without rewards, but Kumble won three leg before appeals from umpire David Orchard and broke the back of the Kenyan batting line up, dismissing captain Maurice Odumbe, Kennedy Obuya and Thomas Odoyo.

There was a bit of a drama when Thomas Odoyo was recalled to bat after he was ruled run out (the umpire Orchard not referring the line decision to the third umpire). The Laws of Cricket says that a batsman can be recalled by the umpire only when (Law. 27.8) the appeal is withdrawn by the captain of the fielding side or by the application of Law 27.9 which gives the umpire the power to alter a decision, but promptly.

Umpire Orchard is a senior umpire and has been in the ICC panel for many years. At least one Kenyan batsman may have been disappointed by his willingness to hand out leg before decisions which he did taking time and convinced that all the three batsmen, Odumbe, Kennedy Obuya and Thomas Odoyo were in front of the wicket. Umpire Orchard appeared to have consulted the third umpire before he decided to recall Odoyo, who had left the field and was a few metres away from the dressing room.

Near-perfect bowling

It was a near-perfect Indian bowling display. Agarkar returned for his second spell and finished with 4 for 27 and Kumble completed his ten overs, giving 14 runs and taking three wickets. Srinath too picked up two wickets in the end and Harbhajan Singh, introduced in the 29th over when Kenya's score was for 64 for seven, helped himself to one.

Well, it was nothing short of humiliation for the Kenyans to be bowled out for their lowest ever in one-day internationals. This effort of 90 under-cut their previous lowest by 13 runs. They were bowled out for 103 by South Africa in Nairobi in the LG Cup of 1996-97.

It was one day when the Indian bowlers strayed on few occasions. The result of which was four batsmen were bowled, five were declared leg before. One batsman was caught at the wicket.

In the kenyan team, surnames of the three Otienos have been changed to `Obuya' at the request of the team.

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