Kenya beat Hong Kong in rain-affected ICC clash

Kenya beat Hong Kong in rain-affected ICC clash

Kenya beat Hong Kong by three wickets in their rain-affected ICC World Cricket League Championship clash on Friday at the Nairobi Gymkhana to boost their hopes of featuring in the qualifiers of the 2019 World Cup.

Hong Kong who took to the crease to bat first were dismissed for 222 after 46.2 overs with captain Rakep Patel taking five wickets after the home team chose to field when they won the toss.

Rain saw the covers come out twice with the target revised to 200 with Kenya surviving a scare to navigate home with 201 for the loss of seven wickets with opener Irfan Karim notching a half century on the way to top scoring on 67 with the bat before being caught by Tanwir Afzal from the bowling of the Anshuman Rath.

Dhiren Gondaria who came on at number three added 45 before a Ehsan Khan delivery ended his innings when he was caught by Nadeem Ahmed with Alex Obanda contributing to the run chase with 29 as Kenya’s top order got off to a solid start with 148-3.

 

“We played really well today .We did very well in the first 10 overs but at some point we were not very accurate with our batting allowing our opponents to pile the pressure on us.

“The two points have motivated us heading into Sundays’ contest.Hong Kong is a good side but i hope we shall fetch all the two points to enable us participate in the Qualifiers.Nepal is the task ahead of us after Sunday and by a win we shall be motivated having in mind Nepal is a difficult ground for us to play,” Patel told Citizen Digital after the match.

While attributing the win to a combined team effort, Rakep added he was delighted by his own performance depsite the unfriendly weather.

“Am so excited. It was a spectacular performance we showed out there and hopefully we can replicate this on Sunday. The 2003 ICC semi-finalists are really motivating the team to go on and surpass them,” the skipper offered.

The Kenyans will play Hong Kong this Sunday at the same venue for the final of their two-game series.

Report by Richard Obaga.

Tags:

kenya hong kong rain Nairobi Gymkhana Rakep Patel ICC World Cricket League Championship Irfan Karim

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