On the face of the scorecard, the Kenya-Ireland Intercontinental Cup match looked an exciting contest, with Ireland pulling off a 10-run victory. However, it was a bit of a disappointment because this was a first-class cricket fixture and it ended with more than two days to spare. All forty wickets fell in 165.2 overs.
As with a lot of international cricket recently, spinners were to the fore. Hiren Varaiya led the way with six Irish victims in each innings while Albert van der Merwe and Somerset's teenage George Dockrell captured all twenty Kenyan wickets between them. Van der Merwe - how Irish does that sound?! - finished with 11-68 for the match. The climax proved interesting because at one stage Kenya were in dire straits at 38-8 before the ninth wicket pair of Varaiya and Nelson Odhiambo took them tantalisingly within reach of the meagre target of 119. The home side still needed 25 with one wicket left but when last man Ngoche struck a four and six, there was still hope before van der Merwe polished things off.
The most fascinating thing about the match was that all 22 wickets to fall on the first day were the result of catches! Not a single LBW, bowled or stumped, despite the dominance of slow bowlers. Can this ever have happened before in a first-class match anywhere in the world?! On the second and concluding day of the game, 'only' eleven of the 18 victims were caught, producing a match total of 33. I'll leave it to those with better access to statistics but at least there wasn't much demand for DRS!
