Kenya ran to an 83 run first innings lead and reached 12 for no loss in their second innings at stumps on day 2 in the Intercontinental Cup match in King City.
After losing two wickets cheaply last night, Canada's overnight batsmen came out and batted very sensibly through the first hour and a half of play on the second day. Sandeep Jyoti and Zameer Zahir showed patience and discipline, playing away good balls and scoring off loose ones, and Canada's total swelled from 14 for 2 overnight to 80 for 2 with half an hour of play left until lunch.
The seamers were getting nothing from the pitch, and so Morris Ouma turned to his spinners to try and break the burgeoning partnership. They did. Hinen Varaiya got Sandeep Jyoti to play into a soft dismissal, nicking onto his pad and being caught at silly point, gone for a patient 39 off 105 balls. Abdool Samad came in and tried to play through safely to lunch, and almost did. But off the last ball of the session before lunch he edged through to a spectacular catch from Thomas Odoyo off the bowling of Steve Tikolo, and Canada were 81 for 4 at lunch.
The afternoon got off to another decent start for Canada, with captain Ashish Bagai joining Zahir and batting well, but Bagai soon spooned a Tikolo delivery to mid on, and from then on Canada lost wickets at regular intervals, failing to show much application, and found themselves reduced to 154 for 7 and in real trouble. The one bright light in the afternoon session was Zameer Zahir, who came in as a nightwatchman last night but went on to be the top scorer for Canada, making 57 off 131 deliveries, including seven 4s and two majestic sixes over long on.
Even with that contribution, Canada were 180 for 7 at tea, still 137 runs shy of Kenya's first innings total. After tea the Canadian tail-enders showed remarkable resolve, but that consisted mainly of strong defensive play rather than the ability to score many runs. A string of six maidens in a row finally culminated in the end of 15-year-old Nitish Kumar's innings, having made a patient 12 off 83 balls. The Canadian lower order continued to frustrate the Kenyan attack, playing patiently off the bowlers and continuing to do so against the new ball into the evening session.
In the end, the bottom 5 wickets made more runs than the top 5, but Canada were still all out for 234. Khurram Chohan (31 off 39 balls) and Umar Bhatti (30 off 110) led the salvage effort.
The Kenyans put on a team bowling effort. Odhiambo led the way with 3 for 60 off 20 overs. Steve Tikolo bowled well, taking a pair of wickets for 16 and Varaiya also took 2, conceding 54 runs. James Kamande bowled tight lines as well starting his spell with five consecutive maidens and ending with lovely, though wicketless, figures of 7-5-2-0.
The end of the Canadian innings left Kenya with a tricky half hour to bat out before stumps, just as Canada did yesterday. They did much better than their opponents, batting safely and holding a 95 run lead overall at stumps.
