News

Aces crash back to earth

A round-up of the first round of matches in Kenya's National Elite One-Day League

Cricinfo staff
05-Mar-2008
Eastern Aces, who won the Elite Twenty20 league, were well beaten by Northern Nomads in the opening round of the Elite One-Day League at Nairobi Gymkhana. On the evidence of the Twenty20 competition, these are the strongest teams and the Nomads will take some stopping.
The Aces were put in to bat and their innings was in tatters inside eight overs as they crumpled to 19 for 4 with Steve Tikolo, always the danger man, dismissed for 1. They eventually limped to 80 in a little over 20 overs which was never enough on an improving pitch. Alfred Luseno, Dominic Wesonga and Josephat Ababu took three wickets each, but it was Ababu who did the real damage at the top of the order. The Nomads suffered a slight hiccup when they lost three wickets for two runs to slip to 48 for 4, but they eased home in a game which barely lasted half the distance.
Kennedy Otieno's 93 laid the foundation for Southern Stars' eight-run win over Western Chiefs, guiding his side to 220, with Rajesh Bhudia's 44 adding some middle-innings impetus. The Chiefs appeared well on course at 131 for 3, but Hiren Varaiya applied the breaks in a parsimonious ten-over spell and the innings fell away. At the end they had three overs in hand but ran out of wickets.
Team Mat Won LostTied N/R Pts
Northern Nomads 11 0 0 0 4
Southern Stars 11 0 0 0 4
Western Chiefs 10 1 0 0 0
Eastern Aces 1 0 1 0 00