Peter Robinson
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9th Match: India v Kenya at Paarl, 24 Oct 2001 Peter Robinson |
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India innings:
Pre-game: Kenya innings: |
Even the stadium announcer was convinced of the outcome midway through the Kenyan innings, proclaiming after 25 overs that “South Africa will meet India at Kingsmead on Friday”.
He may have been a little premature, but few could argue with his judgement. Despite their shock win in Port Elizabeth last week, the Kenyans were finding themselves completely outclassed.
What little hope they had of making a game of it seemed to disappear with Steve Tikolo who made just 1 before being trapped leg before by Anil Kumble at 57 for two in the 17th over.
Maurice Odumbe replaced Tikolo, but the Kenyans were so far off the pace that the result had already become academic and the only real moment of excitement in the middle overs came with a collision between Odumbe and Reetinder Singh Sodhi in mid-pitch as the Kenyans scampered for a quick single. Sodhi, who was bowling at the time, appeared to have come off worst, but he recovered sufficiently to complete his over.
The third Kenyan wicket fell at 101 when Harbhajan Singh induced a leading edge from Odumbe and the catch carried to Venkatesh Prasad, on as a substitute for Sodhi. Odumbe made 20 off 28 deliveries.
Kennedy Otieno’s 97 ball vigil came to an end after he had made 40, stretching forward to Yuvraj Singh to allow stand-in wicketkeeper Rahul Dravid to effect a smart stumpin. Kenya were 104 for four.
The Kenyans had hinted at trying to make a game of it during the first five overs of their innings, Ravindu Shah punching Javagal Srinath off the back foot through the covers for four and then hooking Ajit Agarkar very fine for another boundary, but then the wind seemed to go out of the East Africans.
Faced with a target of 352, Kenya scored 22 off the first five overs of their innings, but only 11 off the next five. Shah’s partner Kennedy Otieno was particularly cautious, so much so that his watchfulness contributed to Shah’s dismissal for 24 at 42 in the 13th over.
Shah played Srinath into the covers and set off for a single only to be sent back by Otieno. Reetinder Singh Sodhi’s throw to wicketkeeper Rahul Dravid found Shah well short of ground. Shah made his displeasure quite clear, gesticulating angrily at his partner before departing.
Assisted by four wides as Anil Kumble came on, the 50 came up in the 15th over. Otieno had 17 with Steve Tikolo yet to score.
Last Wednesday the Indians had scratched and scrambled to 176 in losing to the Kenyans by 70 runs in Port Elizabeth, but in Paarl the openers took the bowling apart, helping themselves to a century apiece – for the second time in the tournament – in a display that will surely take India into Friday’s final against South Africa.
For much of this series when Ganguly and Tendulkar have batted together Ganguly has been the more aggressive, but in Paarl Tendulkar played the senior role as he made 146 with Ganguly reaching 111.
When the two reached 252 they had equalled their own previous record made against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 1997/98 and they went on to better it by six runs before Ganguly finally got himself out, chipping Thomas Odoyo to Brijal Patel at long on. He had faced 123 balls, hitting seven fours and three sixes.
He had been given a life two overs previously on 105 when Hitesh Modi dropped a straightforward chance at long off off Martin Suji.
Tendulkar, who had reached his 100 off exactly 100 balls, carried on for another two overs after Ganguly’s dismissal before he went, after an innings that had used up 132 balls and included 17 fours, caught at midwicket by Maurice Odumbe off Odoyo at 270 for two.
Odoyo picked up his third wicket of the innings when he bowled VVS Laxman, playing his first innings of the tour, for 15 at 310 for three before Virender Sehwag (55 not out off 23 balls with seven fours and three sixes) and Yuvraj Singh (10 not out) took the innings home.
Odoyo, whose first five overs cost just 8, picked up three wickets in his last five overs – but conceded 59 runs. Odoyo, though, was positively economical compared with Martin Suji whose last over, the 50th of the innings, cost Kenya 26.
At this point in their innings, Ganguly had 78 while Tendulkar had gone ahead in the race to see who reached three figures first and was on 92.
Both batsmen, however, had gone to the 50 mark off 48 balls, Tendulkar having hit nine fours while Ganguly had clubbed four fours and two sixes.
The Kenyans looked helpless against the Indian pair and although Maurice Odumbe brought spinners Collins Otieno and Steve Tikolo, the flow of runs continued unabated, Ganguly bringing up the 150 by heaving Tikolo mightily over long on for his third six.
At 164, Ganguly and Tendulkar set a new first wicket record for India against Kenya, surpassing the 163 made by Tendulkar and Ajay Jadeja in Cuttack in 1995/96.
Although the run rate who dropped to just below six to the over, a total of around 350 for India seemed likely.
At the 15-over mark Ganguly had 49 while Tendulkar was on 48 as India made a determined effort to ensure a place in Friday’s final against South Africa.
The match had an unprepossessing start with the scoreboard out of action as the teams took to the field. It was not always easy to tell from a distance which of the Kenyans was bowling, but Martin Suji quickly announced himself by finding the inside edge of Tendulkar’s bat, the ball flying over the off bail and down to fine leg for four. Tendulkar took more advantage of the let off by hitting Suji over extra cover for another four later in the over.
Ganguly was restrained to start with, but he came out of his shell in the ninth over the innings, hitting Suji for two fours and a six pulled low and flat over midwicket. The onslaught forced Suji out of the attack, having conceded 41 off five overs.
His replacement, Peter Ochieng, fared equally poorly, Tendulkar hitting him for three successive boundaries in the 13th over of the innings.
The Indian 50 had come up in the 10th over of the innings, and by the time 15th had been bowled Ganguly and Tendulkar had lifted the scoring rate to 6.4 to the over, Tendulkar helping raise the tempo by greeting Tony Suji’s appearance in the attack with successive boundaries.
The Indians, who lost by 46 runs to South Africans in East London on Friday, named a team top-heavy with batsmen including VVS Laxman who arrived in South Africa on Tuesday. Deep Dasgupta was left out of the side with Rahul Dravid due to take over the wicketkeeping duties.
Kenya, captain Maurice Odumbe returned while Kennedy Otieno was to take over the wicketkeeping duties from his brother David.
India: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar, Javagal Srinath.
Kenya: Maurice Odumbe (capt), Steve Tikolo, Kennedy Otieno, Ravindu Shah, Thomas Odoyo, Hitesh Modi, Martin Suji, Tony Suji, Collins Otieno, Brijal Patel, Peter Ochieng.
© CricInfo
Date-stamped : 24 Oct2001 - 22:36