Zimbabwe in danger of slipping against Kenya

David Houghton turned on his team after they lost first to Derbyshire, then Warwickshire. “We played almost schoolboy cricket …We are so short of match practice,” he moaned. “You can see …That the boys are struggling for form.”

“Up until Christmas, we were playing good cricket and if the World Cup had started on January 1, you would have fancied us, but now we have some catching up to do.”

A few weeks before the tournament, he had forecast that the team would reach the second round.

“In our pool, we would expect to beat Kenya comfortably and we’ve beaten Sri Lanka and India 50 per cent of the time over the last 12 months. Our record against England is played six, won five,” he said.

The tone, however, has changed after he saw his batsmen struggle to acclimatise on England’s seaming wickets.

The form book, however, still says Zimbabwe, even if Kenya, earning the nickname of the game’s latest “banana skin”, produced the biggest shock in World Cup history when they defeated the West Indies in 1996.

Zimbabwe, however, beat the Kenyans in that tournament, won four One-dayers out of four against them in a tri-nation event in Nairobi in 1997 and beat them three times in succession in a similar tournament in Dhaka this year.

They can call on world-class bowling in paceman Heath Streak and leg-spinner Paul Strang and their batting has been bolstered by the recruitment of Natal’s Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin, who has played for Western Australia.

Zimbabwe, cricket’s newest Test-playing nation, last year won their first series by beating Pakistan. They look well-placed to improve on a record of three wins in 25 World Cup matches here — so long as they can acclimatise in time.

Kenya’s strength lies in a batting line-up led by captain Maurice Odumbe, the exciting Kennedy Otieno and Steve Tikolo, the only fully-fledged professional in the squad. Coached by former West Indian great Alvin Kallicharan who played in the World Cup winning teams of 1975 and 1979, they like playing their shots, Caribbean style.

Teams:

Kenya: Asif Karim (capt), Maurice Odumbe, Deepak Chudasama, Hitesh Modi, Sandip Gupta, Thomas Odoyo, Steve Tikolo, Mohamed Sheikh, Jimmy Kamande, Kennedy Otieno, Joseph Angara, Ravindu Shah, Alpesh Vadher, Martin Suji, Tony Suji.

Zimbabwe: Alistair Campbell (capt), Andy Flower, Eddo Brandes, Stuart Carlisle, Grant Flower, Murray Goodwin, Adam Huckle, Neil Jonhson, Mpumelelo Mbangwa, Henry Olonga, Paul Strang, Heath Streak, Dirk Viljoen, Andrew Whittall, Guy Whittall.