da bet sport： Andrew Miller previews New Zealand’s match against Kenya, with the winners guaranteed a place in the Super Eights
Andrew Miller19-Mar-2007
Steve Tikolo slams a boundary during his side’s defeat of Canada © Getty Images
New Zealand are rarely a side to capture the headlines, and that isexactly as Stephen Fleming, their captain, would like to keep it asthey prepare for Tuesday’s match against Kenya at Beaujesour – a gamethat, if victorious, will result in their qualification for the SuperEight leg of the competition.All the talk in St Lucia has been of England’s inebriated boatingantics, a saga that has deflected from the composed six-wicket victorywith which New Zealand opened their campaign on Thursday. For theKiwis, however, tomorrow’s game promises to be a case of once bitten,twice shy. Having succumbed by two wickets to the Bangladeshis intheir opening warm-up match in Barbados last week, they will doubtlessbe on their guard against a team that is indisputably the best of therest.”It’s important to show them a lot of respect and pay a lot ofattention to detail,” said Fleming, with reference to this week’sseismic victories by Bangladesh and Ireland. “I wouldn’t say there wasdisrespect from India and Pakistan but if you look at some of theirshots you’d question how much hard work they wanted to do.”That’s something we’ve really focused on since losing to Bangladesh,”added Fleming. “If we do the hard work, we should be able to beatthese sides ranked lower than us. The key is not changing yourapproach – in the past maybe you could got away with it againstminnows but they now have the quality of players that can hurt you.”Fleming’s side were instrumental in Kenya’s march to the semi-finalsof the last World Cup in 2003. It was their refusal to play in Nairobifor security reasons that earned Kenya the precious extra points thatpropelled them into the Super Sixes. And following England’sunconvincing display against the group outsiders, Canada, on Sunday,Kenya’s captain, Steve Tikolo, felt his side would not necessarily bemakeweights in this particular tournament either. “It shows it can bedone,” he said of the week’s earlier upsets.Tikolo is confident of playing a full part in the match despite battling a calf problem. His lower right leg was strapped during training and, as the rest of his team-mates walked off the field, he stayed on for some extra stretching exercises. “It’s alright,” he said. “I had a muscle pull when I was bowling my second over against Canada. I should be okay.”The only selection issue on Fleming’s mind was whether to go in withtwo spinners or an extra seamer. The Daniel Vettori-Jeetan Patel axiswas less effective against England that their captain had anticipated,and with Mark Gillespie still struggling with a shoulder problem, thefinal berth could belong to Daryl Tuffey or Michael Mason.New Zealand (probable) 1 Stephen Fleming (capt), 2 Lou Vincent, 3 Ross Taylor, 4 Scott Styris, 5 Craig McMillan, 6 Jacob Oram, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 James Franklin, 10 Shane Bond, 11 Daryl Tuffey.Kenya (probable) 1 Maurice Ouma (wk), 2 David Obuya, 3 Ravi Shah, 4 Steve Tikolo (capt), 5 Tanmay Mishra, 6 Collins Obuya, 7 Thomas Odoyo, 8 Jimmy Kamande, 9 Nehemiah Odhiambo, 10 Peter Ongondo, 11 Hiren Varaiya.