Kenya's effort falls short by 4 runs

Henry Osinde 4/51 Canada's top bowler © ICC

All day long Kenya fought hard to recover from their disastrous start of 14 for 4. Hitesh Modi, the overnight batsman was joined by Collins Obuya and the pair added a useful partnership of 51 runs before Modi was caught by Stewart Heaney off the Canadian spin bowler Puvendran Ravishanker.

For Ravishanker it was his first wicket in International competition with this game being his debut for Canada.

Obuya was joined by Tammy Mishra, both played carefully and the scoreboard continued to advance at a very cautious pace, at 98 Obuya offered a chance against Henry Osinde and the Canadian fielders continued to hold their catches , this time it was Geoff Barnett in the slips. Obuya had contributed 43 valuable runs to the comeback but Kenya was still 137 runs away with just 4 wickets in hand.

The Canadians did not let the new batsman settle in too long and with the score just pass the century mark, it was Umar Bhatti who struck this time having Thomas Odoyo caught by Pubudu Dassanayake.

The eight wicket partnership between Tammy Mishra and Nehemiah Odhiambo (38) contributed 66 runs and brought the visitors to within reach of the target of 235. Mishra continued to battle the Canadian attack with only fast bowlers Osinde and Bhatti having any success so far . But it was the right arm medium pacer Don Maxwell that struck the next blow for Canada having Peter Ongondo caught again by Dassanayake with the score at 190. Then the dramatics began- 45 runs to target , one wicket to go .

Tammy Mishra 83* for Kenya © ICC

Tammy Mishra was to Kenya today what Qaiser Ali was to Canada the previous day. Mishra 225 minute innings consisted of 10 fours and 1 six . His final partner, Hiren Varaiya had stayed faithfully with him for almost an hour but with the score on 231 , just four runs short of a first innings lead , Varaiya followed an outswinger from Umar Bhatti and it was Dassanayake with his third catch of the innings that ended Kenya's great comeback just four runs short of a first innings lead.

Mishra had to be disappointed, he had done everything possible to pull this game back for his team but with 17 runs away from his century he ran out of partners. For Canada it was their opening pacers Osinde ( 4/51) and Bhatti ( 4/82) that made the difference as the rest of the attack toiled all long without much success.

Canada started their second innings after a brief shower interrupted play. In just over one hour of batting openers John Davison and Geoff Barnett took a much more sensible and cautious approach to building a good target for their visitors. But it was very entertaining cricket as the pair contributed seven fours and one six . With the score on 46, Skipper John Davison (22) with just 12 minutes to play ,gave Kenya what their were hoping for- a wicket before stumps. Umar Bhatti was sent in as a night watchman and together with Geoff Barnett (20*) will return tomorrow to build on Canada's 56 run lead with nine wickets intact.