Kenya brushes aside Canada by nine wickets in its ICC Intercontinental Cup opener in Nairobi

Kenya made a winning start to its ICC Intercontinental Cup campaign when it defeated Canada by nine wickets on the penultimate day of the four-day match at the Gymkhana Club in Nairobi on Sunday.

Chasing a target of 100 after the visitors were dismissed for 229 in their second innings, Kenya romped to victory in little over 20 overs after Maurice Ouma made amends for his first innings first-ball duck by stroking an unbeaten 71 off 68 balls with 10 fours and two sixes.

The Canadians, trailing the home team by 130 runs on first innings after Thomas Odoyo's maiden first-class century propelled it to 393, started its second innings on Sunday morning by losing both the openers in the first over to Peter Ongondo and never recovered after that despite half centuries of contrasting styles by 36-year-old debutant Arvind Kandappah and Trevin Bastiampillai.

Kandappah hit a strokeful 87 from 111 balls laced with nine fours and a six while Bastiampillai contributed a sedate 160-ball 63 with six hits to the fence. The two batsmen put on 113 runs for the fourth wicket.

The wrecker-in-chief of Canada's second innings was captain Steve Tikolo who, with his off-spinners, finished with figures of 4-34 as Canada lost its last five wickets for 33 runs. Tikolo's scalps included both Bastiampillai and Kandappah. Ongondo and Odoyo shared four wickets between them.

The victory gave Kenya the maximum 20 points while for Canada it was its second defeat in three matches and leaves it tied for third place with Scotland on 26 points.

The Netherlands leads the table with 34 points from three matches while defending champion Ireland is five points behind on 29 but has played one less match.

Canada's fourth match in the tournament is against Namibia at the Wanderers Cricket Ground, Windhoek from 25 to 28 October while Kenya hosts Bermuda in its second match at Nairobi Gymkhana from 1 to 4 November.

The ICC Intercontinental Cup has quickly grown in stature and profile since its inception three years ago and now ICC's premier first-class tournament is an integral part of the Associate Members' cricket schedule.

Having previously been designed around a two-group, three-day format, the event has evolved into an eight-team, round-robin and truly global tournament featuring four-day cricket which gives those teams who do not play Test cricket the chance to experience the longer form of the game.

Scotland won the first ICC Intercontinental Cup in 2004, beating Canada in the final, while Ireland has been victorious in both events since then, beating Kenya in the 2005 decider and Canada earlier this year in the 2006/07 event.

The final of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007/08 will take place in November 2008 at a venue yet to be decided.