Pride and prejudice drives on Kenya, Canada

NEW DEHLI:

Kenya and Canada contest a battle of no-hopers today, but both are determined to prove that the decision to drive them into the World Cup wilderness is wrong.

The two teams are languishing at the bottom of Group A without a point after having lost three games each.

Their performances have added weight to the International Cricket Council’s decision to chop the number of teams to 10 from 14 for the next showpiece event.

However, Kenya wicket-keeper Maurice Ouma believes the ICC will be throwing money away by its decision.

“We deserve to be there considering we consistently played in the last five World Cups. We’ve qualified for the tournament more than anybody,”said Ouma.

Ireland are the only associate nation who have managed to throw the form book out of the window and script an upset win, against England in Bangalore last week.

Canada had a golden chance to imitate Ireland against Pakistan when they bowled their rivals out for a below-par 184. But the opportunity was squandered with Ashish Bagai’s men folding up for 138.

Kenya were whacked by 10 wickets by New Zealand before being hammered by Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“Our big concern is we’re not batting out our 50 overs,” said Kenya captain Jimmy Kamande. “That’s one area we want to work hard on because you can’t win without batting your full quota of overs.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2011.