The sun finally set on Africa’s participation in the 2003 World Cup at Kingsmead on Thursday night as Kenya’s carefree romp through the tournament crunched to an abrupt halt against an organised and efficient Indian team.
Kenya have mixed effervescence with a healthy dose of good fortune during the competition, but their luck ran out at Kingsmead as India cruised to a 91-run victory. With Sachin Tendulkar adding a further 83 to the 586 runs he had already scored in the tournament and Sourav Ganguly in murderous mood against the spinners as he carved out an unbeaten 111, India paced their innings to perfection as they totalled 270 for four.
Kenya never got going, slipping to 36 for four in the first 15 overs before stumbling through to 179 all out in 46.2 overs. It was not a night for fairytales and while it would be unfair to label the Kenyans as outclassed, they most certainly were outplayed by a much better team.
Ahead of the game there might have been a degree of Indian anxiety. They had
to cope not only with the burden of being overwhelming favourites, but also the possibility that the weather might play a part. In the event the rain held off for the afternoon and evening, although not a few of the organisers heaved a deeply felt sigh of relief once Kenya had batted for 25 of their overs to ensure that a result would be decided on the night.
India have pace themselves beautifully through this World Cup after going down heavily to Australia in their second game. As ever, Tendulkar was at the heart of their batting, although on this occasion he was in more sedate mood. There were only five fours and a six in the 101 balls he faced, a relatively low proportion by the standards he has set over the past few weeks. He seemed to lose patience after getting into the 80s, but it took a sensational catch to dismiss him when David Obuya hauled down an absolutely screamer in cow corner.
Before that, though, Tendulkar seldom seemed in any real difficulty while sharing partnerships of 74 for the first wicket with Virender Sehwag and 103 for the second with Ganguly. The tempo was relatively modest as the Kenyan seamers failed to generate any real pace off a relatively slow pitch.
It may well have been this slowness which induced Sehwag to scoop a catch high
into the covers after making 33, but once he had gone, Ganguly suggested almost
from the very start that he meant business.
If the Kenyan seamers had done a useful job for their side, for once the spinners failed to come to the party. Aasif Karim, who bowled so beautifully against Australia last Saturday, conceding only seven runs in eight overs, served up a rank long-hop to Tendulkar with the first ball he bowled and was deservedly thumped for four.
But it was Ganguly who really took to the spinners, twice hitting the leg-spinner Collins Obuya into NMR Avenue in one over. On the first occasion, a passer-by thoughtfully returned the ball. Off the second shot, however, they had to call for another ball.
Ganguly had scored two centuries before in this World Cup, so he could hardly be said to be having a poor tournament, but he had not done all that much in between. One of his hundreds had come in the Super Six match against Kenya in Cape Town and he took a second century off the Africans in emphatic style. He needed only 114 balls for his runs and apart from the pair of sixes off Obuya, he cleared the ropes on three other occasions and thumped out five fours for good measure.
The spinners had not been a factor and, as they came back for the closing overs, neither were the spinners. Ganguly went to his century with a six off Martin Suji who conceded 18 off the 48th over and, in all, India helped themselves to 49 off the last five overs of the innings.
If India ended with a rush, Kenya started at a crawl. It was not entirely clear how they intended to approach their target with Peter Ongondo and Thomas Odoyo sent in, presumably to pinch-hit at three and four.
Neither came off and nor did Maurice Odumbe who hit one towering six off Yuvraj
Singh over extra cover, tried to hit another one off the next ball and failed to clear long off.
As we have come to expect, the Indian seam trio bowled with economy and penetration, but while the revival of India’s fast bowling has attracted much comment, the Indian fielding, too, has approached hitherto unscaled standards during the tournament.
Sehwag’s catch to get rid of Odoyo off a towering top-edged pull was magnificently judged under the floodlights while Mohammad Kaif has been outstanding in the ring and it was his throw that ran out David Obuya. As a farewell there were a few lusty blows from captain Steve Tikolo who made 56, but it was, overall, an unfortunately tame demise.
Even so, Kenya have put a smile on the World Cup and it is for this that they should be remembered, rather than the manner of their departure. As for India, their fans were chanting ”Bring on the Aussies” well before the end. Bring them on, indeed.