India beats Kenya by 8 wickets
Nairobi, Oct 3: India beat Kenya by eight wickets in the inaugural match of the ICC Cup here today, earning themselves a quarterfinal berth in the knock out tournament. They now have to meet strong Australia on Oct 7.
They reached the target of 209 with 7.3 overs to spare.
Kambli on the comeback trail made it easy for India after some initial slow batting by Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. He tossed the bowling around to make 39 runs in 33 balls. Dravid seemed to pick up in confidence from Kambli's freewheeling approach and made a stylish 68 in 87 balls.
Earlier, Ganguly shone in patches, peppering some dull batting with some delectable cover drives. Undoubtedly, his stay at the crease and partnership with Dravid were important after Sachin Tendulkar had been dismissed for 25.
The slow scoring was evident at the half way mark, when the total was only 96 with Ganguly on 46 and Dravid on 17.
Ganguly went on to make 66 before he was caught behind off the bowling of Maurice Odumbe.
It was Tony Suji who trapped Tendulkar leg before wicket after the star batsman had unleashed a flurry of powerful drives square of the wicket. There were also a couple of his trademark bowler's back drives in his cameo innings of 25, but the Kenyans finally won the battle by wearing down his patience. Tendulkar played across the line and paid the price for it.
It was not so much that he was suffering from lack of match practice but that he was in his usual tearing hurry to knock off the runs, it seemed.
The batsman with 9,287 runs under his belt will have to do better if India is to pull it off against Steve Waugh's toughies.
