New Zealand Cricket

New Zealand took Kenya out of their misery soon enough, where this was supposed to be a World Cup standard 50 over ODI; it seemed more like a T20 match as it was over before it began, New Zealand won by 10 wickets.

This Group ‘A’ match took place in Chennai at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Kenya won the toss and elected to bat first.

Kenya didn’t even manage to put up a fight and now the Kiwis will be a little more confident after how badly they lost a warm up match to India.

Opener Alex Obanda made only 6 runs before his wicket was taken by Tim Southee who incidentally took three wickets in this match, that of Odhiambo and Ngoche both who got out on a duck.

Hamish Bennett was the bowler of the day as he claimed 4 wickets that of, opener Seren Waters who made 16 runs of 42 balls which was amazingly the highest individual score of the Kenyan side, Collins Obuya who made 14 runs of 19 balls, Steve Tikolo made 2 runs of 2 balls and Maurice Ouma who made 1 run of 6 balls, basically almost the entire top order was chipped away by Bennett.

Jacob Oram also took three wickets that of, skipper Jimmy Kamande who made 2 runs on facing 16 deliveries, Thomas Odoyo made 2 runs of 6 balls and Elijah Otieno who got out on a duck. Rakep Patel was the only one who remained not out at 16 runs facing 23 delieveries.

Daniel Vettori bowled 6 overs giving away only 16 runs but got no wicket. So, hideously for Kenya they were all out for 69 runs at 23.5 overs which New Zealand could chase with 2.89 runs per over and with blind folds and one hand tied behind their backs, sad but true.

New Zealand lost no wickets; the openers were more than enough for this depressing run chase. Martin Guptill made 39 runs of 32 balls and Brendon McCullum made 26 runs of 17 balls.  So they chased and made 72 runs in 8 overs finishing their innings in 37 runs flat.

The Kiwis will be sad as they will not be one of the teams to break any records which most teams have done till now facing weaker teams.

The Man of the Match went to Hamish Bennett for his 4 wicket haul at 3.20 runs per over.

We may crib saying that reducing the number of teams for the next World Cup will be unfair for many countries, but after seeing this match no one can deny that countries like Kenya various others are just not ready to compete in the global sphere. Perhaps having a small World Cup in their own conditions before entering in to the major tournament will help them improve. If they were to play against each other rather than play with big names like Australia or Sri Lanka from the word go, it might build confidence and will most definitely keep the World Cup more interesting as the top class teams will be more concerned about their spots in the quarter and semi finals.

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