Easy outing for South Africa

By G. Viswanath

KIMBERLEY, OCT. 14. The De Beers Diamond Oval in this town, famous for the `Big Hole', uncut diamonds and Pat Symcox, was all spruced up for the Sunday show. The beach umbrellas and small and big tents for special guests gave it a picnic-like setting. The cricket buffs - men, women and children - were there in good number too, to cheer the home team. It was a near perfect day when Shaun Pollock bowled the first ball of the fifth match of the Standard Bank Tri-series.

The latter part of the day was also revelry time for the home supporters, especially when Herschelle Gibbs exploded, shredding the Kenyan attack, ball after ball, bowler after bowler.

Gibbs dominated the Kenyan attack, smashing fourteen 4s in all. He began with an exquisite backfoot punch between cover and point, followed it up with over-the-top shots and powerful pulls and ended in a flourish with inside-out shots over cover and extracover. He had literally finished the task (if it was one!) for South Africa when he departed with the team score on 115.

Kenya's highest score against South Africa in five one-day Internationals and the highest in this tri-series was not enough on a beauty of a pitch. The South Africans crushed the Kenyans with Lance Klusener hitting five 4s off a single over from Maurice Odumbe and making a run-a-minute undefeated 75.

If Gibbs was all class, elegance, skill and power and showed a wide repertoire of strokes, Klusener symbolised a batsman with strength in his hands and a cold-blooded attitude, and outscored Dippenaar, who also played some attractive shots and crossed his half century as South Africa won by nine wickets with 53 balls remaining.

Improved batting by Kenya

The Kenyans showed a note of improvement in their form, in the context of the poor run their batsmen had in their previous match against the Indians at the Goodyear Park in Bloemfontein. It would have been terrible had they continued in the same vein. They came here with great hopes and made big strides that revealed they had the talent and potential to rub shoulders with the best in the business.

Three of the Kenyan batsmen - Ravindu Shah, Maurice Odumbe and Thomas Odoyo - urged by a tremendous willpower to come good, ended up scoring half centuries, which carried their team total to 229. They were baulked from putting up a score in excess of 250 only because Shaun Pollock bowled a wonderful spell at the finish in which he came up with a yorker length delivery to end an attacking innings from Thomas Odoyo at 53. Thereafter Pollock had Martin Suji driving back to him.

A total of 229 had some respectability to it. It also meant that the South Africans would have to spend some time in the middle to score them to win. What was glaring even in the Kenyans' improved display was the familiar sight of the Obuyas - Kennedy and David - falling easy victims and appearing like men with a weak heart. But the batsmen who followed them and the opening batsman, Ravindu Shah, showed a certain character for close to three hours.

The Kenyan captain, Odumbe, was certainly not short on luck again at the toss. He won his third straight toss and as most captains do, elected to bat. He could not have invited the South Africans to bat first, when the experience of the previous two matches showed him that his batsmen were coming close to the cricketing term `rabbits with the bat'. He gave another opportunity for his batsmen to run into form.

Opener Kennedy Obuya came into the match with 877 runs, but his average dropped further, after another cheap dismissal. He nicked Shaun Pollock to Justin Kemp at second slip. A little later debutant Charl Langeveld captured his first wicket for South Africa when David Obuya offered a catch to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher. Kenya's No. 3 batsman fell off the last ball of the fourth over which meant that Odumbe's team was following the routine pattern of losing early wickets and thereby getting into a pressure situation.

But Ravindu Shah saved the day for the Kenyans. In the first match against South Africa, at Benoni, he was in the middle for 64 minutes, but made almost nothing in terms of runs. On Sunday, he made full use of the open spaces outside the inner ring. He attained a degree of fluency after flicking Langeveld to the mid- wicket fence. After Pollock and Langeveld had gone through their opening spells of six overs for 15 and 25 runs and one wicket apiece, Shah and Steve Tikolo targeted Justin Kemp, who had shared 10 wickets with Langeveld in the South Africa `A'- Kenya warm-up game.

Shah was in a punishing mood, hooking Kemp for a six and then hammering him for four 4s - all struck between backward square- leg and mid-on. Tikolo did not lag behind. The stylish right- hander drove Langeveld straight down the ground, swung Makhaya Ntini over mid-wicket for a 6, cover drove Kemp and then followed it up with a straight hit off Ntini. The third-wicket stand had regained ground for the Kenyans, but Tikolo paid the price for being a little impatient and impetuous. He got the faintest of nicks to a Ntini short ball for Mark Boucher to go up on his toes to take a smart catch.

Shah completed his half century in a little over one- and-a-half hours with half a dozen 4s and one 6. He and Odumbe continued the good work, but an outstanding effort by Gibbs at backward point terminated Shah's innings. The South Africans rarely allow catches, especially in the square of the wicket positions, to go down.

But the Kenyan captain, Odumbe, and an allrounder of some reputation, Thomas Odoyo, were determined to stretch the South Africans and prevent Kenya's long tail from being exposed. Both played solid middle-of-the-bat shots, took their singles, and built a partnership that produced 106 runs in 81 minutes. Langeveld broke the partnership, trapping Odumbe, and Pollock removed Odoyo, the consequence of which was that the Kenyans fell short of a 250 plus total.

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