Jimmy Kamande called correctly at the toss and opted to bat first on a pitch expected to help slow bowlers, as Kenya and New Zealand opened their World Cup accounts in Chennai. This pitch has come in for some criticism from both South Africa captain Graeme Smith and his Australian counterpart, Ricky Ponting, who called it "under-prepared".
Daniel Vettori, the returning New Zealand captain who was rested for New Zealand's warm-up against India, has also indicated that he expects the pitch to deteriorate over the course of the day, and so the contribution of Kenya's spinners - led by Shem Ngoche, with back-up from Kamande and Steve Tikolo - could be vital as they look to spring an upset.
Vettori, too, could be a handful for Kenya's inexperienced line-up on a pitch that is practically free of grass but one man who won't be troubling the Kenyans is Kyle Mills, who sits out today with Hamish Bennett and Tim Southee the two frontline seamers for New Zealand.
While both teams will have drawn positives from their warm-up games - the good form of opener Seren Waters being particularly pleasing for the Kenyans - both also have plenty to prove in this tournament. The Kenyans' decline from the heights of 2003, when they reached the semi-finals of this event, has been alarming, and New Zealand have come out second best in their last three bilateral series.
Kenya 1 Seren Waters, 2 Alex Obanda, 3 Collins Obuya, 4 Steve Tikolo, 5 Maurice Ouma (wk), 6 Rakep Patel, 7 Jimmy Kamande (capt), 8 Thomas Odoyo, 9 Shem Ngoche, 10 Nehemiah Odhiambo, 11 Elijah Otieno
New Zealand 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Jessie Ryder, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 James Franklin, 6 Scott Stryis, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Hamish Bennett, 11 Tim Southee
No comments:
Post a Comment