Kenya seeks to rebound against Kuwait in World Cup qualifier

Kenya’s captain Shem Ngoche says the team must get the “basics right” when they face Kuwait Wednesday in the 2024 Men’s Cricket World Cup Challenge (CWC) League “A” match at Ruaraka Sports Club Ground in Nairobi.

The match will bowl off at 9am. Qatar will also clash with Denmark in another match at Nairobi Gymkhana. Jersey and Papua New Guinea (PNP) are the other teams competing in the One Day International (ODI) tournament that ends on Saturday.

The competition is the first round of qualifiers for the 2027 Cricket World Cup, which will be co-hosted by South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe in October and November.

The top two sides from the group at the end of three rounds in 2026 will secure their spots in the final World Cup qualifier play-offs.

Kenya will seek to bounce back to winning ways after suffering an embarrassing four-wicket loss to Denmark at Nairobi Gymkhana on Sunday. The hosts made a strong start to the campaign, defeating Jersey by six wickets on Wednesday last week.

“We should hit the right areas and bowl to our fields because [against Denmark] we were being hit square of the field and not where we had put the fielders,” said Ngoche.

The match between Kenya and Kuwait promises to be explosive since the Middle East nation will be out to maintain its winning streak in the competition. After defeating Denmark by two runs on Wednesday last week, Kuwait floored Qatar by 47 runs (DSL method) on Saturday.

Apart from improvements in their fielding department, Kenya will be looking for a stronger showing from its top-order batsmen.

In their match against Denmark, the hosts gave away three easy boundaries inside the first over, while they also dropped two catches towards the end of the contest.

In the two matches, Kenya’s top-order batting collapsed early, leaving the middle-order department to come to the team’s rescue.

Against Jersey, top-order batsmen Pushkar Sharma, Neil Mugabe, and Dhiren Gondaria delivered just 11, 17, and 14 runs respectively.

While Sharma bounced back in the match against Denmark with 60 runs, his opening partner Neil Mugabe was dismissed for a duck inside the first over. Third batsman Dhiren Gondaria also left the crease early with just 11 runs from 11 balls. Former Kenya captain Rakep Patel will be hoping to continue with his impressive run in the competition.

After top scoring with 84 runs and taking the most wickets at six in the match against Jersey, the all-rounder impressed with 85 runs. He was not out in the two matches.

Qatar will be seeking to register their first win of the competition after losing by 168 runs to Jersey in their opening match of the campaign on Thursday last week.

Wednesday’s matches (All matches begin at 9am)

Qatar v Denmark (Nairobi Gymkhana)

Kenya v Kuwait (Ruaraka Sports Club)