McCallan and Porterfield lead Ireland to victory

Kyle McCallan's restrictive and incisive spell, followed by William Porterfield's composed half-century led Ireland to a three-wicket victory in the first ODI against Kenya in Dublin. Ireland restricted the visitors to 214 for 9 after which they chased down the target with seven balls to spare.

That Kenya were kept to only 214 was down to McCallan's spell which cut through the middle order. They had made a solid start with the openers, David Obuya and Kennedy Otieno, adding 80 for the first wicket before McCallan had Obuya stumped for 41. He provided the second wicket as well, trapping Alex Obanda lbw with the score on 126.

McCallan then drove home Ireland's advantage by dismissing the experienced Steve Tikolo for 1 and struck again, trapping the wicketkeeper-captain Maurice Ouma leg before to reduce the visitors to 146 for 4. Alex Cusack took the vital wicket, that of Otieno for 78, and the Kenyan innings never recovered the lost momentum. McCallan finished with 4 for 30 while Cusack ended with 3 for 37.

Porterfield took charge of the chase, anchoring the innings with a steady performance. He received useful, if not substantial contributions from his team-mates and put together a succession of handy partnerships that took Ireland towards the target. He was the fourth wicket to fall, for 81 off 111 balls, but the middle and lower order batsmen chipped in to secure victory in the 49th over. Thomas Odoyo was Kenya's best bowler, taking 4 for 33 off his ten overs with two maidens, but his effort went in vain.