Collins Obuya bounced back with a hard-earned half century to give Kenya their second win of the T20 World Cup Global Qualifiers against Oman at Myreside, Edinburgh, on Saturday.
Obuya’s half century came off 37 balls as he recorded three boundaries and one maximum towards the man of the match feat.
Put in to bat, Irfan Karim was the first to depart in the sixth over with 19 off 21 to his name, caught by Jatinder Singh off Rajeshkumar Ranpura’s bowling.
He was followed back to the pavilion by his opening partner, Narendra Patel, five balls later, having contributed 12 off 17 balls to get the scoreboard to 33 runs. Nehemiah Odhiambo (19 off 18 balls) added 39 runs for the third wicket with Obuya enroute to his dismissal in the 12th over, where he was caught by Amir Ali courtesy of Zeeshan Maqsood.
Skipper Rakep Patel (21 off 15 balls) led from the front, stabilising the innings in the middle order a 52-run partnership with Obuya taking the score to 124 runs before hell broke loose.
Obuya dispatched a catch to Aamir Kaleem off Ranpura’s bowling as Munis Ansari struck twice to upend the skipper’s stumps and dismiss Shem Ngoche with the next ball as he skied one to Vaibhav Walegaonkar in the penultimate over.
LAST MAN
Lucas Oluoch (12 off 6) was the last man out with the last ball of the innings, completing an 18-run partnership with Maurice Ouma (6* off 4) to take the score to 143/7 in 20 overs.
In their defence, Kenya did not allow the newbies to settle, Ngoche claiming both openers in alternate overs, the Ngoche brothers sharing the spoils of six out of the seven wickets claimed.
Khawar Ali (11 off 20) was the first one to depart as the skipper held on to his deputy’s ball, followed by Zeeshan Maqsood (13 off 12) who dispatched one to Oluoch. The scoreboard barely moved, on 47, when James Ngoche joined the party by clipping Walegaonkar’s stumps.
Oman’s Mehran Khan (13 off 14) and Jatinder Singh (31 off 34) added 30 runs for the fourth wicket before the skipper struck again to dismiss Khan through a James Ngoche catch. Jatinder Singh departed two balls later when Shem Ngoche came back to play in the 15th over.
Amir Ali and Rajeshkumar made a 36-run partnership for the seventh wicket that almost took them over the line but Nelson Odhiambo stopped them short, dismissing Ali with three balls to come, with a well constructed 30 runs off 20 balls.
Oman managed only ten runs off the next three balls as they fell agonisingly short of seven runs to win.
Kenya will take 2/2 as they take on Afghanistan today.
