da roleta： The Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell won the toss in theopening match of the LG Cup and put Kenya in to bat
Anand Vasu26-Sep-1999The Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell won the toss in theopening match of the LG Cup and put Kenya in to bat. KennedyOtieno and Ravindu Shah opened the batting for Kenya and playedthe Zimbabwe medium-pacers steadily. Debutant Mutendera and NeilJohnson did not trouble the Kenyan batsmen. Ravindu Shah was inparticularly good form, and played the ball well through thegaps. Otieno struggled to score freely and was dismissed byJohnson after he had made 7.Steve Tikolo joined Ravindu Shah out in the middle and the twoput on a good partnership. Ravindu Shah did a bulk of thescoring, driving magnificently through the off-side, pulling theball effortlessly and cutting the ball with authority. Theboundaries flowed off his bat while at the other end the Kenyansstruggled to get the scoring going. The partnership betweenTikolo and Shah was worth 100 runs when a mix-up in callingresulted in Tikolo being run out. Tikolo had made 33 in thepartnership of 100. After Tikolo’s dismissal none of the otherKenyans really got going.Hitesh Modi was steady in his innings of 31. Maurice Odumbe wasgiven out LBW to a ball from Campbell that looked like it wasgoing well down leg-side. From this point onwards, Kenya lostwickets at regular intervals in trying to push the scoring rate.Ravindu Shah was brilliantly caught by Guy Whittall off his ownbowling. Shah hit the ball straight back at the bowler andWhittall plucked the ball out of the air. Shah had made asparkling 71 that included 11 boundaries. Kenya ended up with 199for 8 off their allotted 50 overs. A score that looked a triflesmall on this track.Martin Suji and Thomas Odoyo began briskly to Neil Johnson andGrant Flower. Both Kenyan openers worked up a good pace. Johnsonand Flower played confidently and stroked the ball well off thesquare. Ababu was brought on to bowl his gentle medium pacersfirst change and had success immediately. The lack of pacedeceived Johnson, who dragged the ball back onto his stumps.Alistair Campbell came ion next and looked in ominous form. Hehelped himself to 3 boundaries and one glorious six before heoverbalanced to an off-break from Odumbe and was stumped. Theball from Odumbe turned sharply off the track and Campbell wasbeaten all ends up. Campbell had made 27.Murray Goodwin came in at the fall of Campbell’s wicket and tookcharge of the game. Goodwin and Andy Flower systematically tookthe game away from the Kenyans. Mohammad Shiekh, bowled his leftarm spinners erratically and was punished by both batsmen. Hebowled too many short deliveries and was regularly pulled to theon-side fence. When Andy Flower was finally dismissed playing alazy stroke, Zimbabwe were comfortably positioned at 181 for 4off 40.2 overs. Flower hit a ball from Tikolo to Ababu at mid-on,who completed the catch easily. Goodwin continued to stroke theball freely and watched in surprise as wickets began to fallaround him.Stuart Carlisle was declared caught behind after consulting thethird-umpire in dubious fashion. Firstly, the ball appeared to befar away from the bat and secondly, it did not look like thewicketkeeper had gathered the ball cleanly. Shortly after, HiteshModi took a good reflex catch at silly-point to send Blignaut onhis way. The match came down to the last over, with Zimbabweneeding 3 runs to win, with 3 wickets in hand. Goodwin strokedthe ball to mid-on and a fumble allowed the batsmen to scamperthrough for the 3 winning runs.Goodwin was unbeaten on 76 and was rightly adjudged man of thematch.Zimbabwe had made heavy weather of a simple run chase.