Kenya are through to the finals of the Africa Zone World Cup Qualifiers in Benoni, South Africa after they beat Botswana by 4 wickets in their semi final. Kenya won the toss and elected to bowl, a strategy that paid dividends when Nelson Odhiambo struck early to remove opener D Ramjee with only 13 showing on the scoreboard. He then induced an edge from number 3 N Tajbhay that Mansukh Jesani gleefully snapped up behind the stumps. Though Odhiambo was not to snare any further wickets, his 8 over spell only cost 14 runs and set a good platform for the rest of the bowlers.

Pritesh Lalji was the next bowler to make a breakthrough clean bowling Y Pelwan for 15 with the score on 49. S Mohyuddin fought back with first K Kapoor (16) and then S Seqeira (20) and K Moside (24), but once the 6th wicket fell with the score on 140, Alex Obanda and Prashant Srinivas got amoung the tail and it was all over.

Obanda ended up the surprising leading wicket taker for Kenya as Botswana were all out for 158. He took 3/31 as Kenya restricted their opposition to their second lowest total of the tournament, the lowest being 114 all out against Tanzania. S. Mohyuddin ended up Botswana's top scorer with a fighting 42.

Kenya went into the afternoon session knowing that if they batted sensibly and do not throw their wickets away chasing a quick victory, they should win. In some of the group games, cheap wickets had been given away by players looking to finish off opposition quickly, rather than keeping wickets intact and ensuring a more certain, if slower, win. Having so far made scores of 200/5 (chasing), 277 and 155/6 (chasing) they would have felt confident in their ability to win.

The chase began well with the opening pair of Jesani and Samarth Patel putting on 46 before Patel was bowled by Kapoor for 11. Three unnecessary run outs then brought a wobble to the Kenyan innings as first Jesani, then Sagar Karia, promoted in place of Peter Kituku, and Rakep Patel all gifted their wickets to Botswana. In the middle of all the chaos, Kapoor removed danger man Alex Obanda clean bowled for 10. Kenya had stumbled from 46/0 to 104/5.

Vice Captain, Prashant Srinivas then came to the crease and set about calming things down. Though Kenya lost one further wicket with the score on 115, Srinivas had begun to take control and when he was joined by Pritesh Lalji, the two steered Kenya safely home without further mishap. Srinivas finished unbeaten on 45, while Lalji added a valuable 24 not-out.

In the end, the win was all that mattered for Kenya, but they will have to play at their best today in the finals if they are to beat a resurgent Namibia. The South West Africans have gone from strength to strength since they lost to Kenya in the opening match of the tournament and underlined their credentials with a thumping 9 wicket win over Uganda, a team that many had picked would win this event.

Uganda batted first and set a total of 229/9 with top scores coming from A Kyobe (53) and A Ochan (38). Pick of the Namibian bowling was A van Rooi, whose ten overs cost 43 runs, but brought 4 crucial Ugandan wickets. Namibia's reply was authoritative right from the start and such was their dominance over the Ugandan bowlers that the only wicket of the innings came when Raymond Van Schoor was run out by Sesmanda for 65. Fellow opener Sean silver again struck a century (118 off 123) and this time carried his bat as he and Tiaan Louw (31*) coasted home with 5 overs still remaining.

The competition now closes as it began with Kenya facing Namibia. Kenya will be hoping that they can once again contain the Namibian batting and finish the tournament unbeaten. Namibia will no doubt see the match as a chance to avenge their first round loss, while for Kenya nothing but a win would suffice to make up for missing out in previous tournaments. Both teams will see it as a case of unfinished business and it should produce a cracker of a match.

Summary of scores from Day 5:
Semi Finals:
Botswana 158 (S Mohyuddin 42, K Moside 24, A Obanda 3/31, N Odhiambo 2/14, P Srinivas 2/18, P Lalji 2/35)
lost to
Kenya 160 (P Srinivas 45*, M Jesani 36, P Lalji 24*, K Kapoor 2/34)
by 4 Wickets.

Uganda 229/9 (A Kyobe 53, A Ochan 38, A Van Rooi 4/32, M Engelbrecht 2/45)
lost to Namibia 233/1 (S Silver 118*, R Van Schoor 65, T Louw 31*)
by 9 wickets.

Tanzania 148 (A Kakonzi 57, H Abdalla 34, M Ayiwurije 2/16, A Anyanya 2/19, K Baganeba 2/24)
lost to
Ghana 150/3 (S Awe 44*, S Ateal 25, O Harvey 22, O Mandari 2/48)
by 7 wickets

Zambia 399 (K Banda 109, S Hassen 91*, Safraz Patel 80, S Bangliwalla 57)
beat
Nigeria 84 (U Bankole 29, G Kandela 5/23, S Havelewala 3/14)

Schedule for final day:
FINAL:
KENYA v NAMIBIA

3rd & 4th:
UGANDA v BOTSWANA

5th & 6th:
GHANA v ZAMBIA

7th & 8th:
TANZANIA v NIGERIA