NAIROBI, Kenya, January 25 – Kenya’s dismal form with the bat was the major talking point on day one of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Intercontinental Cup match against Scotland on Monday.
Eldine Baptiste’s charges were 91 all out in their first innings after being put in to bat by the Scots who won the toss at Nairobi Gymkhana.
Scotland who are 121-3 at stumps will be delighted with their bowling performance against a Kenyan side who are struggling against the tourists seam attack.
Dewald Nel started sending the Kenya batting lineup on its way back to the pavilion by taking the scalps of opener Seren Waters (1) and captain Maurice Ouma (22) in the third and eleventh over respectively.
Collins Obuya (40) and Ouma were the only Kenyan players who secured double digit runs.
Any hopes of a potential Kenya resurgence were extinguished when former captain and leading run scorer Steve Tikolo fell to Gordon Drummond in the 20th over after only managing seven runs.
After Obuya’s dismissal, the rest of the batting line up collapsed in quick succession with Drummond grabbing two more wickets of Rakep Patel (3) and Nehemiah Odhiambo (0).
The tourists began their innings in dizzying fashion scoring 22 runs before Kyle Coetzer was bowled by Odhiambo for 12 runs.
Douglas Lockhart hit 22 of 64 balls before caught leg before by Hiren Varaiya leaving Scotland sitting pretty at 74-2 after 24 overs.
Odhiambo struck again when Scotland was at 106-3 dismissing Ewan Chalmers (14) but Scotland will be eager to pick up where they left off on Tuesday and pile more pressure on the hosts.