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Kenya put up a brave fight

Favourites Zimbabwe made it to the final of the Meril International Cricket Tournament with a comfortable 64-run win over Kenya in their return clash at the Bangabandhu National Stadium last night.

Opener Neil Johnson slammed his second one-day century to help Zimbabwe muster an imposing total of 280 for six in the stipulated 50 overs. Kenya, while in chase, gave their more colourful opponents a scare scoring 216 for eight in 50 overs.

Johnson scored 101 off 120 balls to give Zimbabwe a solid start after skipper Alistair Campbell won the toss and decided to bat on a perfect track.

Losing his opening partner Grant Flower (14) on 33 in the fourth over, Johnson shared a 72-run stand with one-down Murray Goodwin. Goodwin gave timely support to the left-handed opener with a patient 26 off 40 balls.

The partnership was broken on 105 in the 21st over when Goodwin pulled left-arm spinner Asif Karim, only to be caught at mid-wicket.

Johnson, who had scored his first century (103) against Pakistan, then added another valuable 85 runs with in-form Andy Flower. The two took the side to 190 before Johnson was unfortunately run out in the 38th over. Johnson cracked 13 sweetly timed hits to the rope.

Skipper Campbell followed Johnson soon. He was stumped by Otieno for a duck when he went down the wicket to drive Tikolo.

Left-handed Andy Flower then took charge and shared a 54-run stand with all-rounder Guy Whittall. Before being trapped leg-before by Thomas Odoyo in the 47th over, Andy scored 73 off 86 balls with a six and three boundaries, his third successive fifty in the tournament. Odoyo then showed Viljoen his way to the dressing room in a similar fashion in the next ball.

Guy Whittall, however, kept the scoreboard ticking in the last three overs with a quickfire 34-run unbeaten partnership with Heath Streak. Whittall was not out on 40 off just 30 balls while Streak was undefeated on 10 off 7 balls.

For Kenya, two in-form batsmen Stephen Tikolo and Maurice Odumbe scored highest 73 and 50 runs respectively.

The duo, who propelled Kenya to an eight-wicket win over hosts Bangladesh last Saturday with an unbeaten 118-run partnership, raised some hopes for the ICC runners-up with a brilliant 131-run third wicket partnership.

But everything came back to Zimbabwe's way when Grant Flower dismissed both in the span of three overs. Grant returned with his career best four for 32 to put brakes on the Kenyan campaign. Skipper Alistair Campbell backed him well, taking two wickets for 33 runs from his 10 overs.

To his credit, middle-order Hitesh Modi was undefeated on 45 when Kenya exhausted their quota of 50 overs.

Zimbabwe maintained their unbeaten run in the tournament, having won all their three matches. On the other hand, Kenya have lost twice to Zimbabwe and won against Bangladesh.