A wicket in the first over with no runs on the board put New Zealand on the back foot and had the Kenyans held on to their catches, they could well have had NZ in some serious trouble. Ross Taylor was dropped when he didn’t have too many and he went on to make the Africans pay. His 85 laid the foundation for an assault later that Kenya had no answer to.

At one stage, New Zealand looked like they would reach 275 but that man Craig McMillan had other ideas. He went on to score 71 (48b) with five massive sixes. Along with Yuvraj Singh, Brad Hodge and Herschelle Gibbs, McMillan is one of the batsmen to watch out for in the next stage.

Kenya really has no one but themselves to blame for this debacle. The start they got could have been improved upon with some tidy fielding and bowling, but they gave away far too many extras and looked generally sloppy and bored in the field! Not really understandable when one more win could see them through to the next round. And they had the start (with the ball) to give it a good shot.

The same slackness in the field also came about when batting as they suffered three run-outs. Ravi Shah (71) was the only man who could made any respectable score apart from Thomas Odoyo’s 42. New Zealand went on to win by a massive 148 runs and with England the next opponent for Kenya, the chances of making it to the next round are rather slim.

A good opportunity that was wasted through inexperience. Hopefully when they are in a similar position next time, they will make it count.

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