ICC CWCQ: Kenya falls to Denmark in dramatic second innings

Kenya men’s national cricket team bowlers played with the hopes and expectations of fans at the Nairobi Gymkhana Grounds on Sunday afternoon, before finally dropping them to the ground as they valiantly fought but failed to record one of the biggest comebacks in a tasty clash against Denmark.

At the end of a nervy second innings, it was the Danes who walked off the grounds smiling, after they finally won a game in the first-leg of the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League A, beating the hosts by four wickets.

So close was their margin of victory, that Lameck Onyango’s side, in several stretches of a heart-to-mouth bowling performance, looked destined to cause a pleasant upset despite being dealt with a heavy task of restricting the visitors to under 268 runs.

Perhaps Kenya will go back to losing the toss and being forced to bat, or maybe being quite “unfamiliar” to the Gymkhana Grounds given their opponents already had a taste of it, but the immediate bitter pill will be the missed opportunities while bowling.

Having got a major reprieve when man-of-the-match Zameer Khan was dismissed thanks to the impressive arm of Lucas Ndandason, a chance offered itself for Kenya to double down on the big dismissal, only for Rakep Patel to drop a shot from new batsman Nicolaj Laegsgaard.

That gave up a couple of runs with the projections beforehand requiring Denmark to hit 20 runs from the next 21 balls.

The other big moment came in the 48th over, when Vraj Patel corralled a shot before dropping it when coming down, instead offering another couple moments after Sachin Gill had been forced to see his ball lofted for six in the previous over.

Also factual, in context, was that Denmark did an excellent job when fielding early on, as they left Kenya two wickets down in the first four overs - with Neil Mugabe (duck) and Dhiren Gondaria (11) exiting the stumps, before slowing down Kenya’s attack in the last 10 overs to set up an achievable target.

Rakep, who was the star against Jersey on Wednesday, still shone with the bat with an unbeaten 70-ball 81, while Pushkar Sharma in his second consecutive start struck 60.

ICC CWCQ: Rakep Patel's heroics fuels Kenya past Jersey in opener

That was however not enough on a punishing day for the gathered fans.

“Our death bowling was really on point, and is a huge part of the reason why we won today,” Denmark skipper Hamid Shah, who knocked 51 in their innings, said post-game. “Having played in this ground before, we knew restricting our opponent’s batting figures was crucial, and that worked brilliantly for us.”

Kenya, with one defeat and a win so far, are third on the six-team log, but have three games left to play.

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