Kenya overrun Scotland in savage T20 display

Mike Stanger reports on the one-sided game between Kenya and Scotland in the T20 Tri-Series in Nairobi...

Kenya totally outplayed Scotland in their first of two meetings in the T20 Tri-Series in Nairobi, racing to a 10-wicket victory in the 12th over of their innings. It was a classic display of T20 batting, and one which the Scots will need to emulate if they are to make any impact in future games.

The Scots got off to a brisk start in the first innings, with Ryan Watson chalking up three boundary fours, Fraser Watts launching a six, and 12 leg-byes and byes gratefully accepted.

But it didn't last, as Watson misjudged a slower ball, tried to turn it to leg and was struck on the pad, lbw for 13 in the fourth over, with the score on 28.

Two overs later, Kenya having brought on the first of their four spinners, collective madness struck the Scottish batters. After hitting another maximum, Watts thought he could do it every ball, and was bowled for 16. The very next ball, Jan Stander went for a straight drive and played over the ball.

Then, just when some cool thinking was required on the hat-trick ball, Gavin Hamilton played into the covers, called Kyle Coetzer for the run, then changed his mind and found himself shaking the Durham batsman's hands at the striker's end!

Three wickets in three balls in the sixth over, the score on 47, ruined Scotland's innings, and quite unnecessarily, as the run rate was already eight an over.

That subsided steadily for the rest of the innings. At the halfway stage, Scotland had also lost Hamilton, run out at the striker's end going for a second run, and Richie Berrington, whose reverse sweep didn't work, coming off the back of the bat towards silly mid-off, where Kenya keeper Maurice Ouma took a diving catch.

More woe followed in the 15^th and 17^th overs as both Ross Lyons, promoted ahead of Majid Haq, and Simon Smith danced down the pitch to the spinners, Lyons bowled and Smith mishitting a catch to point.

And Gordon Goudie went in a similar manner, holding back the drive, but squirting the ball in a delicate lob to extra cover. Altogether, the Kenyan spinners had taken six of the seven bowlers' wickets to fall.

But Haq, top-scorer with 21*, and Dewald Nel (7*) saw the innings to a close at 109-9 – the same total as against Uganda the previous day – each scoring a boundary in the closing over.

So, once again, could Scotland's bowlers – and particularly the spinners – pull them out of the fire against a better-equipped opposition batting line-up?

Kenya made hay off the seamers' opening overs, Nel going for 13 and Obuya savaging Goudie with two sixes and two fours in the over: 33-0 off two overs! Nel kept his second over runs to just two, but Goudie never got another chance! Instead, Jan Stander was given the ball, Obuya and Tikolo both finding the rope.

Nel's third saw Obuya carving two more boundaries from the first two balls, and there was only one dot ball in the over, which finished on 55-0. There were no dot balls at all in Stander's second, so it was time to invite the spinners to rescue a forlorn prospect at 66-0 from six overs.

Majid Haq brought the Obuya juggernaut to a stop with a maiden over, and Ross Lyons's first was a relatively modest [1 1 4 . . .].

Obuya reached his half-century off 36 balls, in the ninth over, with 7x4s and 2x6s to his name, but Lyons was now in Tikolo's sights with two boundaries in the tenth over. Haq, having conceded only four from his first two, was then despatched for 10 in is third, leaving Kenya with just 16 to win off nine overs!

Watson was given the poisoned bowling chalice, and Tikolo promptly hit him out of the ground – 11 off the over. So it was Berrington who was handed the ball for what turned out to be the final over. The scores were tied as Tikolo stroked the first ball to the boundary; the third was the winning run. And the Scots were defeated by 10 wickets, to think again.

[Scorecard]

[Commentary]

Pictures courtesy of the ICC