Obuya turns out to be the show-stopper at Nairobi bash

The tag of minnows may never sit comfortably with lesser-teams and Kenya is no exception. And when ICC president Malcolm Gray had announced during the 2003 World Cup that a Test status for Kenya is at least five years away, there were no prizes for guessing why Kenyans were a fired lot when they took on a Sri Lankan side that was coming off a run of three straight wins.

Kenya had someone like Kennedy Otieno who was prepared to throw his bat around at the Gymkhana Club Ground after they were asked to bat first by Sanath Jayasuriya. A swatted six off Vaas on the on-side showed the confidence of a man who was not going to allow the Sri Lankan bowlers settle into any kind of rhythm.

Otieno’s aggression at the top of the order was the key to Kenya posting a score of 210 for 9 in 50 overs. His innings assumed a lot of value considering Kenya’s next second-best score was 26 apiece from Hitesh Modi and Maurice Odumbe.

The match was soon turned into a family picnic. Otieno’s younger brother Collins Obuya bowled a dream spell of leg-spin bowling to stifle the Sri Lankans to doom. Of course, he should be indebted to his seamers for prising out openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu early not to forget their razor-sharp fielding which meant that Sri Lankans had to work hard for their runs.

The 21-year-old leg-spinner snared Hashan Tillekaratne, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumara Sangakkara to bog down the Lankans. Aravinda de Silva was the only one to offer resistance with a 53-ball 41 but he too became Obuya’s fourth victim when he went back to cut one and was snapped up by the keeper.

Obuya reached his most-cherished moment snaffling a 5-for getting rid of Chaminda Vaas. His 5 for 24 from ten overs set up a famous Kenyan win as Sri Lanka plunged from a healthy 71 for 2 to 119 for 7 before being bowled out for 157 off 45 overs.

“Obuya was excellent. I think he bowled the spell of his life,” Kenya captain Steve Tikolo said about his effort. And too many guesses weren’t required as to who the Man of the Match was.

The frustration of a major Test playing nation losing to a lesser-playing nation was apparent in how Sri Lankan skipper Sanath Jayasuriya summed up the match. “I think it’s one of the worst matches I’ve ever played. We did not play like professionals today, we played like amateurs.”

Croft crushes Pakistan dreams

The dominating presence surrounding the West Indies side instils fear in the minds of the opposition. The dash of arrogance, wave of confidence, bucketful of self-belief would seem like no team can even remotely challenge them.

The proceedings didn’t suggest anything different when West Indies and Pakistan squared up in the World Cup semifinals at Oval. Openers Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes quickly negated Asif Iqbal’s decision to insert them in, rustling up a solid century stand before cameos from Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd and Collis King propelled them to 293 for six off its allotted 60 overs.

Pakistan suffered an early jolt in the form of Sadiq Mohammad before Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas showed the cricketing world how to combat fiery pace bowling and for the first time gave Windies a real scare of a semifinal exit with a 166-run stand in 36 overs.

The frustration in the West Indies ranks was clearly evident as Lloyd kept shuffling his bowlers around to break the partnership. He brought Colin Croft into the attack from the Vauxhall end and the move worked wonders.

Croft dislodged Zaheer, seven short of what would have been a well deserved century when the latter flicked one down leg into Derrick Murray’s gloves, much to the relief of the West Indians.

Bowling with his tails up, Croft prized out the well-set Majid caught by Alvin Kallicharran for 81 to significantly swing the balance of the game.

And the initiative was well and truly seized when Croft trapped Javed Miandad lbw for a first-ball duck as Pakistan disintegrated from 176 for one to 187 for four.

Croft, an air traffic controller during his playing days, who later qualified as a pilot, snared three wickets in twelve balls, conceding four runs in crucial spell of bowling to finish with 3 for 29 from eleven overs which nicely set up West Indies’ final entry as Pakistan lost their nine wickets for just 74 runs to be all out for 250 in 56.2 overs.

Cocky Pakistan said goodbye to final berth for the third straight time!

The Gaddafi Stadium at Lahore was buzzing with excitement in anticipation of Pakistan’s maiden World Cup final entry after being losing semi-finalists in 1979 and 1983. The stakes were indeed high for Imran Khan’s men to win the World Cup playing in their own backyard, and it was in this backdrop that Pakistan took on Australia, one of the most underrated teams at the 1987 World Cup.

It was Australia who pulled the early punches through a 73-run opening stand between Geoff Marsh and David Boon and ensured the hosts were kept at bay after Allan Border called it correctly. Boon consolidated the Australian innings in association with Dean Jones after the run out of Marsh as they prospered to 155 before the hosts tasted some success. Part-timer Saleem Malik had Boon stumped by makeshift wicketkeeper Javed Miandad, standing in for the injured Saleem Yousuf, followed soon by the departure of Jones.

In fact, Australia at one stage seemed to put up a score in excess of 300 but it only due to Imran’s penetrative three-wicket spell at the death that their scoring spree was kept in check, as Aussies finished at 267 for 8 in 50 overs.

A solid opening start was the need of the hour chasing 268 for victory but the Pakistan top-order made a mess of things, leaving the most experienced pros in the side – Javed Miandad and Imran Khan to turn around the fortunes of Pakistan. The duo milked the Aussie bowling nicely finding the occasional boundary to keep Pakistan in the running.

The general feeling around the Stadium was that Pakistan could pull this match off as long as Miandad and Imran were at the crease, as they raised 112 for the fourth wicket before Imran fell to rival skipper Border.

Pakistan’s hopes for a final berth, was dealt a killer blow when Miandad was cleaned up by Bruce Reid. The tailenders did their best to take Pakistan close to the Australian target but they always had their backs to the wall.

McDermott polished off the tail to bag a brilliant 5-for and condemn Pakistan to a 18-run defeat.

Pakistan’s defeat smacked off a sense of overconfidence in their ranks. This stems from the manner in which former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas took a swipe at the Australians on the eve of the World Cup semi-final calling them “schoolboys; mere club cricketers” in his newspaper column.

No wonder, Australia were fired up for the occasion and wanted to prove a point or two.

Bangladesh show who are the boss

Sheer embarrassment, sheer disgrace, sheer frustration, call it whatever you want but that’s the kind of bitter feeling it left in the minds of every Indian witnessing India’s shocking five-wicket thrashing at the hands of lowly Bangladesh at Queens Park Oval at Port-of-Spain.

Hang on; it’s not much for India’s defeat but the manner in which it capitulated which left a deep disappointment all around. Nobody would have reacted strongly against the defeat if it was a well fought contest but it was not – rather, it was plain surrender something billion fans wouldn’t have bargained for, that too, in the World Cup opener.

Skipper Rahul Dravid only did one thing right: winning the toss and batting first. After that, nothing went right for India. Virender Sehwag’s lean run with the bat took an unwelcome extension much to the delight of Mashrafe Mortaza. Robin Uthappa preferred flamboyance over discretion and soon India were looking like minnows than their so-called opponents at 21 for two.

Once the Bangladesh seamers did the early damage, it was the turn of their spinners to teach some of the best players of spinners in world cricket some hard lessons. Abdur Razzak was bowling like a seasoned campaigner, at least, the way in which he beat Sachin Tendulkar all ends up to be caught at the wicket would suggest that.

Skipper Dravid failed to enact the captain-lead-from-the-front act and suddenly India were 72 for four with almost half their overs consumed. At this juncture, the Indian innings required not just a rock-solid stand but also run-scoring at a fair clip as India hardly looked like setting Bangladesh a formidable target.

It needed the experience of Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh to bring some semblance of stability to the Indian innings but the pace of scoring left a lot to be desired. Yuvraj looked the most fluent Indian batsmen but the lack of momentum from the other end held them back as Ganguly struggled to be at his aggressive best.

Indian hopes of a final assault looked on track with the score on 157 for four after 42 overs but the innings fell apart after the departure of Yuvraj and Ganguly. Mortaza accounted for Munaf Patel to finish with returns of 4 for 38, as India were all out for 191 in 49.3 overs.

Tamin Iqbal ensured the Tigers were no way going to make heavy weather of the modest total, propelling Bangladesh chase with a blistering half-century. The young left-hander was batting like it was his 100^th one-day international and not his fifth one-day international, creaming the Indian bowlers to all parts of the Queens Park Oval. A pulled six over mid-wicket off Zaheer Khan while charging down the wicket in the 11^th over was the best out of the lot and would have even made someone like Mark Greatbach proud. “I am never overawed by the opposition and whatever the circumstances I will play my natural game. I am happy that my maiden fifty has come in a winning cause,” Tamim once said about his rollicking knock.

Bangladesh lost some momentum with the fall of Tamim’s wicket but whatever slender hopes India had of spoiling the rare winning opportunity of Bangladesh was laid to rest by half-centuries from Shakib Al-Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahman as they reached 192 for five with nine balls to spare.

The match was talked about as a huge upset of the 2007 World Cup but someone like former Bangladesh captain Raqibul Hasan gets riled when people talk of that win as an ‘upset’. “Many are trying to term it as an upset: Why? I request them not to use this word to denounce the performance or strength of the team,” he said about that magnificent win.

The Port-of-Spain victory was a hell of an effort from Bangladesh but it cannot be denied that India allowed themselves to be dictated by Bangladesh which turned out to be significant factor in deciding the final outcome of the match.

King Richards’ dhullai ensures Sri Lankan bowlers didn’t have a place to hide

The West Indian pride was hurt big-time after their nail-biting opening game defeat at the hands of England. Understandably, Vivian Richard’s men were keyed up to redeem themselves when they took on Sri Lanka at Karachi.

The National Stadium was bathed in glorious sunshine as Richards walked out to face Ravi Ratnayeke who was on a hat-trick having dismissed Carlisle Best and Richie Richardson with West Indies at a shaky 45 for two. He successfully denied Ratnayeke the hat-trick and soon clunked him through the covers which set the pace for a period of sizzling strokeplay.

One could only admire the ease at which Richards picked off the Sri Lankan bowlers - the flowing cover drives, the wristy flicks, the lofted hits over long-on and long-off ensured every spectator at the Stadium got their money’s worth.

The West Indies innings was set on a firm footing as Richards slowly but surely got on top of the Sri Lankan bowlers. His fifty was brought up with a single off left-arm spinner Don Anurasiri. In Desmond Haynes he found an ideal foil as the pair drove the Sri Lankan bowlers to despair with a fabulous partnership.

Sri Lankan captain Duleep Mendis tried everything, including part-timers Aravinda de Silva and Asanka Gurusinha to break the Richards-Haynes partnership that was assuming alarming proportions but every effort proved futile.

The belligerence of Richards, who was beginning to see the cricket ball like a football, almost made it look as if Haynes was scoring at a slow pace even though his ninth ODI century came at a strike rate of over eighty. He drove seamer Vinothen John to the point region for a brace to arrive at his 10^th ODI century and took his aggression to a different gear once his hundred was registered. He singled out Ratnayeke for special treatment bludgeoning him for two sixes over extra cover.

The only mild consolation came when Gurusinha broke the 182-run third-wicket stand bowling Haynes but no respite was in sight as Richards was blazing away from the other end. Save for John and Anurasiri who were shown some amount of respect, the rest of the Lankan bowlers were subjected to Richards’ savagery.

Ashantha de Mel was taken for 97 off his ten overs and it was of him that Richards brought up his 150 with a scooped six over deep-square-leg. It needed a brilliant catch by Roshan Mahanama at backward point to bring an end to Richards’ swashbuckling innings at his score on 181, coming off 125 balls, packed with sixteen fours and seven sixes though it served as little consolation for de Mel for the kind of punishment he took.

Richards’ innings powered West Indies to a score of 360 for 4 off its allotted fifty overs – the highest World Cup score then. “I remember standing at long-on and Don Anurasiri was at long-off and we just saw the ball sailing over our heads on a regular basis. That was some hitting. You can’t compare anyone today with Viv or anyone I have seen for that matter,” Aravinda de Silva who played in that game once recalled that blazing innings.

Sri Lankans were brutalized by Richards’ onslaught and never looked like coming anywhere close to the West Indies’ score. The outcome looked a foregone conclusion as the likes of Gurusinha, Arjuna Ranatunga and Mendis opted to have some good batting practice as Sri Lanka finished at 169 for four in fifty overs to give West Indies a whopping 191-run victory. And nobody would have betted on who should be the Man of the Match - it was that plain and simple.