3RD MATCH (REPLAY) -- ZIMBABWE v KENYA

Heath Streak, although still losing his line at times, bowled well and the first Kenyan wicket went down quickly. Then followed a useful partnership between Dipak Chudasama and Kennedy Otieno, who took the score to 60 before the latter was out, precipitating a collapse. Four wickets fell for only seven runs, and Kenya never recovered. Bryan Strang was mainly responsible for this with his left-arm seamers, taking two quick wickets and having Steve Tikolo stumped by Andy Flower, standing right up to the stumps. Tikolo played forward to a ball from Bryan Strang just outside off stump which moved off the seam and beat the outside edge; he missed and raised his back foot for an instant, and was very well stumped.

Despite a dogged recovery by the Odumbes, Maurice and Edward, the rest of the innings fell to Paul Strang, again brought on rather late as fourth change in the 30th over, by which time the score was only about 90. The Kenyans had very little idea of how to play him, especially as the pitch was taking a great deal of turn, and they could only set the Zimbabweans a straight-forward target of 135. They concentrated rather too much on defence early in their innings, which put pressure on their later batsmen. In the end they used up all but two balls of their 50 overs in scoring 134.

Paul Strang became the first Zimbabwean bowler to take five wickets in a one-day international, but his record has since been eclipsed by his brother Bryan. Most of the Zimbabweans bowled well, determined to make no mistake about beating their junior opposition. The seamers bowled tightly, with Bryan Strang bowling a particularly good ten-over spell without a break, but it was the advent of Paul Strang that really sealed Kenya's doom.

Zimbabwe began with an opening partnership of 59 between Andy Waller, most aggressive, and the steadier Grant Flower. The rest of the top order batted disappointingly, while Flower himself was eventually out for 45, deceived by a slower ball from Rajab Ali that he failed to pick up. The scoring rate also declined, as the Kenyans bowled their overs at a quick rate and the Zimbabweans for a while became rather bogged down. They were unused to winning, and Paul Strang feels that they were rather affected by nerves. It was left to all-rounders Craig Evans and Heath Streak to see Zimbabwe through.

Martin Suji, opening the Kenyan bowling, did a useful job, while Ali bowled a good line and length. Asif Karim, the left-arm spinner, bowled a tidy spell, but there were no bowlers with any real pace or sharp spin.

Despite two relatively unknown teams, a large crowd of more than twenty thousand came to the Patna ground on both days and supported the match enthusiastically.

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