By Anand Philar, IANS,
Chennai : Minnows Kenya sank without a trace in the hallowed turf of the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium as New Zealand warmed up nicely for their ICC Cricket World Cup campaign with a 10-wicket win in a Group A fixture here Sunday.
The Kenyans collapsed to 69 all out in just 23.5 overs as the Black Caps seamers Hamish Bennett (4/16), Jacob Oram (3/2) and Tim Southee (3/13) struck telling blows. The Kiwis then wasted little time in knocking off the runs as they made 72 for no loss in eight overs.
It was Kenya’s lowest total in the World Cup after the 104 against the West Indies in the 2003 edition. Their batsmen appeared clueless on a pitch that offered good bounce which the tall Kiwi seamers exploited to the hilt.
The 23-year old Bennett, in only his second year of international cricket, broke the back of the Kenya line-up with a 10-ball burst that saw him take four wickets to set up the Kiwi victory. Fittingly, he was adjudged Man of the Match.
Following up on him were Oram, who snapped up three wickets in 17 balls, while Southee, into his second spell, picked up two more off consecutive deliveries that left him on a hat-trick going into the next game.
While Bennett generated good pace and troubled the batsmen with his in-coming deliveries, Southee and Oram stuck to the basics of line and length.
The Kenyan batsmen struggled to get going and the first boundary of their innings came only in the eighth over, for such was the grip the Black Caps maintained.
Seren Waters (16), Collins Obuya (14) and Rakep Patel (16 not out) were the three players who could get to double figures, while extras added 10.
In reply, the Kiwi openers Martin Guptill (39 not out) and Brendon McCullum (26 not out) made light of the Kenyan bowling that at best was enthusiastic but had little substance as the match concluded in a mere two hours, 24 minutes.
New Zealand now travel to Nagpur for their next game against Australia (Feb 25) while Kenya fly out to Sri Lanka to take on Pakistan, Feb 23.