Ouma hundred keeps Kenya afloat

Close Kenya 91 (Obuya 40) and 288 for 7 (Ouma 106*, Varaiya 44, Nel 3-91) lead Scotland 306 (Sheikh 108, Berrington 80) by 73 runs
Scorecard

An unbeaten hundred from Maurice Ouma kept Kenya afloat on the third day of their Intercontinental Cup game against Scotland at Nairobi Gymkhana. His 106, along with dogged contributions from Hiren Varaiya (44), Collins Obuya (38) and Steve Tikolo (34) had stretched Kenya's lead to 73 by stumps. Two late strikes by Kyle Coetzer gave Scotland the edge today, however, and Kenya closed at 288 for 7.

After a dismal performance in their first innings, the pressure was on the Kenyan batsmen today. The inexperienced Rakep Patel added only 10 runs to his overnight score before he edged Dewald Nel through to Simon Smith to give Scotland their first breakthrough of the morning. Majid Haq found Obuya's edge after he had flowed to 38 to bring Tikolo, Kenya's most experienced batsman and a constant presence in the middle order for the last 15 years, to the crease.

Kenya would have hoped for a long innings from Tikolo, and he stroked six boundaries in a fluent innings but fell to Haq's offspin with Kenya still 67 runs short of making Scotland bat again. All the while, Varaiya held firm at the other end, grinding his way to 44 from an astounding 237 balls - his highest score in first-class cricket - before he became Nel's third victim of the day.

Jimmy Kamande showed some application to survive for 54 balls, but his dismissal by Coetzer nine overs before the close opened the door for Scotland and Nehemiah Odhiambo was bowled for a duck in Coetzer's next over. Elijah Otieno's unbeaten 10 - his personal best with the bat in any format - allowed Ouma to go to a well-deserved hundred, but with only three second-innings wickets still standing, Scotland will still be confident that they can restrict Kenya to a gettable total tomorrow.