Kenya’s woes blamed on poor batting
Kenya’s failure to progress to the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia was down to poor batting numbers in the just-ended qualifies in the United Arab Emirates.
The highest scoring batsman was Irfan Karim who scored (173 off 142 balls) with 23 boundaries but aside from himself and Dhiren Gondaria (141 off 116 balls), the rest did not live up to expectations.
Veteran Collins Obuya had the best bowling numbers (11-104) on the board and captain Shem Ngoche feels the shorter version of the game demanded more discipline in the batting area, something they failed to deliver.
Maurice Odumbe’s charges failed to get a playoff spot, finishing a disappointing fifth in their group after only two wins in six matches.
“I think we did not take proper responsibility in this tournament as a team and it is disappointing. We let ourselves down even in matches that we should have won and I think we have to work a lot on the mental aspect of the game. Our batting flopped and we have to improve,” said Ngoche.
The only teams Kenya went past in the championship was incidentally the two lowest finishers; Bermuda and Singapore. The top two, who qualified for the big showpiece next year in the group were Papua New Guinea and Namibia who lost one game apiece.
Kenya’s net run rate of -1.156 was the third lowest in the championship as they exposed their wickets which was catastrophic.
Youngster Aman Gandhi, who batted in three innings as a debutant, had a good spell on the crease, plundering (86 off 98) balls with five boundaries and a six to his name.
