New Zealand Cricket

The New Zealand team crushed the Kenyan batting with their bowling performance and took all the ten wickets for a meager score of 69 runs. Jacob Oram (3-2), Tim Southee (3-13) and Hamish Bennett (4-16) bowled brilliantly and took all the team wickets in a matter of 23.5 overs.

Kenya won the toss and elected to bat. However they were hardly able to keep up to the batting that would have been required to keep them in with any sort of chance. The top scorers from Kenya were Seren Waters (16), Collin Obuya (14), RR Patel (16) and the ten extras.

This was Kenya’s lowest ever total in ODI cricket. New Zealand easily chased down the target with Martin Guptill and Brendan McCullum scoring 39 and 26 respectively.

Vettori said in the post-match presentation, “The wicket had a bit of variable bounce, which our seamers exploited. It was a great performance from the bowlers…….It was good to start like this. The victory will stand us in good stead for the match against Australia on Friday.”

Kenyan captain Jimmy Kamande said in the post match presentation, “There was nothing wrong in the wicket. It was the areas New Zealand bowled…” He accepted that the Kiwis came hard at them and they were unable to keep up to the required fight back. He further said that his team would have to learn from their mistakes and try to improve in the matches to come.

Bennet who was the most successful bowler said that he was happy with his performance in the match. He says that the team had struggled right through the last season especially against Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, but now they were trying to get back into form.

This match was the first Group A match. The second match between Sri Lanka and Canada of the same group is under progress. Sri Lanka have already completed their first innings and scored 332/7 in fifty overs.

Sri Lanka’s innings started off well with Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan playing their free flowing shots. However Tharanga departed at a score of 19 runs when he was run out by Ruvindu Gunasekera.

Dilshan soon departed at a personal score of 50 when he was caught by Davison of the bowling of Rizwan Cheema. Sangakkara (92) and Mahela Jayawardene (100) put on a partnership of 179 runs.

Perera (11), Matthews (21) and Samaraweera (18) finally took the score to 332 at the end of fifty overs. Key bowlers from Canada were Harvir Baidwan and John Davison who took 2 wickets each.

It only remains to see how long can Canada resist the Sri Lankan bowling and stay on the crease.

Tags: Cricket, Hamish Bennett, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Jacob Oram, Kenya, New Zealand, Tim Southee, World Cup