Steve Tikolo is having a very good day in Mombasa during the third ODI between Bermuda and Kenya. Winning the toss, he again elected to bat and has been rewarded by a fine effort from his batsmen, not least himself. Though Kenya lost David Obuya (3) early in the match, it definitely has been their morning. Maurice Ouma showed last match that he may be coming out of his form slump and reinforced that today with 47 valuable runs at the top of the order. Only 2 short of his personal best in ODIs, it should certainly give Coach Roger Harper confidence ahead of January and vindicates the selectors for sticking with him. Hopefully for Kenya his troubles are now over and he can concentrate on more good performances in the months ahead.
Malhar Patel replaced Tony Suji at three and though he only made 25, it should be enough to press for his future selection. Once again however, it was the old-and-young partnership of Tikolo and Mishra that really took the game away from Bermuda. This time, there was no race to half centuries as Tikolo was not hanging around for anyone. He played solidly for his 50, then began to accelerate and was scoring at well over a run a ball by the time his century came up. None of the Bermudan bowlers were spared in his fantastic innings that eventually ended on 111 off 99 balls when he was stumped by Kwame Tucker while coming down the pitch to Leverock.

Tanmay Mishra fell on 44, just short of consecutive half centuries, but his place was taken by Collins Obuya who made a quick fire 15 while supporting his captain. Bermuda did get some joy towards the end of Kenya’s innings with some quick wickets as batsmen selflessly chanced their arms in an effort to take the score beyond 300. Thomas Odoyo proved that he is still an all round force with a blustery 31 not out as he took the hosts to 305. He showed no let up on the bowlers despite losing Obuya, Kamande and Odhiambo in quick succession to Dwayne Leverock, who had a real seesaw morning. Opening the bowling for Bermuda, his first 3 overs bagged a wicket and only conceded 4 runs. Brought back while Tikolo and Mishra were at their most belligerent, he saw his figures suddenly balloon out, before taking that vital wicket of the Kenyan captain. Leverock ended up conceding 53 runs off his 10 overs, but finished with 5 wickets to show for it!

Kenya will go into lunch confident that they can hold of Bermuda’s chase. The visitors have only scored at 3.2 and 4.4 runs per in the first two matches and have only made a total of 329 runs from both innings combined. Confidence must not however be allowed to give way to complacency. Kenya under Roger Harper have made great improvements in their approach to the game and need to show their professionalism in the field. Harper and Tikolo will expect a clinical performance and each player to keep the fielding tight and the run rate down. Bermuda need to throw caution to the wind and find some way to break the shackles that Odoyo and Ongondo seem to impose at will at the beginning of each innings.