Ed Joyce’s 88 runs was the cornerstone that Ireland built their innings on after winning the toss and electing to bat yet again when they beat the hosts by 117 runs on the second and final match of the World Cricket League Championship ODI match played at the Mombasa Sports Club on Monday.
The Kenyans had deployed near similar tactics opening with spin on one end and pace on the other, the plan worked partially as they managed to reduce Ireland to 50 for 3, but Joyce continued to fight on and was involved in two partnerships with Andrew White and Kevin O’Brien to further consolidate the Irish innings before Hiren Varaiya had him caught at mid-wicket by James Ngoche to deny him what looked like a destined century.
After posting 237, the Irish bowlers kept the Kenyans quiet and picked crucial wickets at regular intervals to completely ruin the run-chase. The wickets were shared amongst Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Paul Stirling and Trent Johnston whom picked a brace of wickets each.
Kenya were left reeling at 37 for 5 at one point and that soon became 74 for 7 and from there on they never recovered and failed to build on Saturday’s good start to collect maximum points from the two encounters.
Shem Ngoche did register his best career batting score of 28, the highest by a Kenyan on the day but his efforts were too late down the order and he never threatened the Irish total as it was a case of when rather than who will clinch the encounter.
The two teams take meet again from Wednesday for three back to back Twenty20 encounters to conclude the series.
|
.jpg)
