Kenyans hang on for draw

Despite a great effort by the Trinidad and Tobago bowlers late on the fourth day, Kenya held out for a draw yesterday in their third round Carib Beer Series regional cricket clash at Shaw Park, Tobago.

SCORES: TT 257 & 103 versus Kenya 150 & 88/8. After being bowled out for just 103 after lunch yesterday, Trinidad and Tobago set their opponents a winning target of 211 runs from a minimum 69 overs. Everything was pointing towards a TT victory in the afternoon as Kenya were reduced to 43 for four wickets on the stroke of tea. Pacer Rayad Emrit had an excellent spell from the Pavilion End claiming two early wickets to set the hosts on course. All-rounder and “Man-of-the-Match” Dwayne Bravo also got into the act and sent back opener Kennedy Obuya for 23 and the dangerous Maurice Odumbe for three in quick succession.

Soon after the resumption, Bravo induced an edge from the left handed Hitesh Modi only to see skipper Imran Jan spill the chance at first slip. Modi and Tikolo advanced the score to 62 when Amit Jaggernauth trapped the latter leg before for 18. Emrit was then brought back into the attack and in a decisive spell he grabbed three wickets in 10 balls to reduce the visitors to 76 for eight. Modi with 12 not out and Francis Otieno, undefeated on eight then batted carefully until the umpires offered lights to them at 5.45 pm with nine overs remaining. Earlier Trinidad and Tobago resuming on the overnight position of 34 for three struggled throughout the morning after a 10 am start. Play was due to get underway at 9.30 am but rain delayed the start by 30 minutes.

Fast bowler Martin Suji was almost unplayable in the overcast conditions and quickly accounted for Shazam Babwah (4). TT at that stage were 41 for four and Jan in partnership with Kenton Thompson  added a valuable 33 runs for the fifth wicket. The off-form Jackson worked very hard for his runs while Jan took the attack to the bowlers. However just as the duo was taking the homesters to a position of  safety, they both fell. Thompson was leg before wicket to skipper Steve Tikolo for 15 and Jan followed soon after for a top score of 30. After this things just went downhill for TT and they were finally bowled out for 103. Suji ended with the remarkable figures of 15-8-23-4, while Odumbe took three for 16 and Tikolo two for 22.

TT get six points from the drawn encounter, while the Kenyans got three. TT are now 24 points and in joint second place with the West Indies “B” team. TT next play the Windward Islands at the Queen’s Park Oval, while the Kenyans take on Barbados from Friday. Chairman of the regional matches committee Azim Bassarath said after the match he was happy with the Tobago venue although there was room for improvement. “For the sake of development we have to continue to stage matches in Tobago, although there is still a need for a lot of improvement. Since our arrival in the sister isle we held a meeting with the Tobago cricketing officials and former national player Ken Williams was able to make a lot of changes to the organising group and by the end of the match things were running a lot smoother,” he said.