ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

IRELAND v KENYA Ireland made two changes from the side which played in the semi-final. Paul Mooney had a back problem and was replaced by Andre Botha, who now reported fit, and Andrew White, recovered from his virus, came in for Greg Thompson. Kenya, fielding the same team as that which beat Bermuda, were pre-match favourites since they had beaten Ireland three times in their three previous encounters. Against this, the weather remained hot and the pitch was an even better batting surface than that used in the semi-final, which made a draw the most likely outcome. Steve Tikolo chose to bat on winning the toss and despite losing Maurice Ouma to a run-out in a mix-up with his partner, Kennedy Otieno, the latter dominated the early proceedings, putting on 60 for the second wicket with Tony Suji, who contributed only 11. Trying to push his own scoring rate along, Suji fell to a catch by Connor Armstrong. Otieno, striking the ball to all parts of the ground, was joined by Tikolo and they took the Irish bowling apart. Otieno was dropped at gully by Botha off Adrian McCoubrey and further disaster occurred when Johnston fractured a finger, stopping a drive to extra cover off Botha’s bowling. He tried twice unsuccessfully to return during the match, dosed with painkillers, but was unable to grip the ball properly. Kyle McCallan took over the on-field captaincy. Kenya’s hundred came up in 30 overs; lunch came three overs later with the score at 130 for two. In the second over after the interval, at 1.06 pm, McCoubrey trapped Otieno leg-before. The next wicket fell after tea at 4.50 pm. In between, Tikolo and Hitesh Modi more than repeated what they had done against Bermuda, putting on 267 runs in 55.3 overs. Modi was again the anchor, scoring at a strike rate of 56.3, but he did reach his century this time, before offering a return catch to White. Tikolo’s strike rate was 104.1 in an innings characterised by drives and pulls with the ball rarely hit into the air. Thomas Odoyo replaced Modi for two balls to bring up the 400, 55% of which came in boundaries, and secure eight batting points at which point the declaration was made. In 13 overs Ireland scored 37 before the close but lost Dominick Joyce leg-before to Odoyo, shortly after which Odoyo injured himself bowling; the over was completed by Tikolo and Odoyo was unable to bowl again in the match. Ireland’s batting on the second day was vastly superior to their bowling on the first whilst Kenya’s bowlers looked even less likely to get wickets than had Ireland’s. Jeremy Bray and Eoin Morgan became steadily more aggressive and, after Bray was dismissed, Niall O’Brien chose to anchor the innings whilst Morgan took on the scoring role until mistiming a cut shot off the slow left-armer, Mohammad Sheikh. O’Brien and Botha then batted skilfully in a stand of 165 in 29.5 overs (a strike rate of 92.1), 45 coming in the last ten before Botha mis-pulled a ball from Collins Obuya and was caught-and-bowled. Trent Johnston, in an imaginative piece of captaincy, surprised everyone by declaring to ensure that Kenya did not obtain any more bowling points. Kenya’s players did not know how to respond, whether to bat as long as possible without losing too many wickets and, hopefully, win the Intercontinental Cup on bonus points, or to try and win the game. With a minimum of 39 overs left in the day, Otieno, opening with Martin Suji because Ouma had been off the field and was not allowed to bat until at least one hour had elapsed, began patiently until, in the 17th over, McCoubrey had him caught at the wicket trying to cut a lifting ball. There were no more alarms until, in the 24th over, White dismissed the Suji brothers with consecutive balls. With McCallan and White bowling their spin, Ireland got through their overs and, with 16 minutes to go, started the 41st over, at which point, in seemingly bright conditions, the umpires inexplicably offered the Kenyan batsmen the light and the players left the field. Very soon afterwards, it did get dark and heavy rain fell, some 14 mm being recorded overnight. Play began 15 minutes early to compensate for the time lost on the second evening. White accounted for Ouma in the third over of the day but, in another inspired piece of (acting) captaincy, McCallan removed him from the attack and bowled himself. On a drying pitch which had only been covered by tarpaulins, he picked up four wickets as Kenya capitulated, losing their last seven wickets for 48 runs. The Irish fielding verged on the brilliant with McCoubrey and White holding excellent catches. Ireland now required 245 runs to win in a minimum of 80 overs. Kenya were handicapped by injuries to Odoyo and Martin Suji. Joyce and Bray made 83 for the first wicket and, with the first six batsmen all contributing, Ireland were Intercontinental Cup winners with one hour and 13 overs to go. Kenya were defeated because they lost the plot after Johnston’s devious declaration. Ireland won because they had the batting to match that of Kenya and because, with the spin of White and McCallan, they had superior bowling. Andrew White and Kyle McCallan shared the Man-of-the-Match award, literally because only one plaque was provided by the ICC. 78 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2005