Kenya captain hails shock win over India

Stand-in Kenyan captain Steve Tikolo said his team's 70-run win over India on Wednesday ranks alongside their shock win over the West Indies in the 1996 World Cup.

"This is right up there with the West Indies win in the World Cup," Tikolo told reporters. "I would regard it as one of our best.

"I am absolutely over the moon. We have some talented players in our team and in cricket, you never know.

"When you have your chances you have to take them and we did that today."

Kenya scored 246 for six in their 50 overs and bowled India out for 176 in the day-night match to secure their first win in the tournament which also features South Africa.

The result was a remarkable achievement given that Kenya were without their captain and key batsman Maurice Odumbe, who was sitting out the first game of a two-match ban following remarks he made about an umpire after Sunday's nine-wicket defeat to South Africa.

With team manager Mehmood Quraishy also in hospital awaiting heart bypass surgery after being taken ill on Tuesday, Tikolo admitted his team were highly motivated when they took the field.

"We spoke about it before the match and our idea was to go out there and play hard, play for the manager and for Maurice," Tikolo said.

Kenya's Indian coach Sandip Patil added: "The boys have done it - I have done nothing.

"I always had faith in them and I kept saying that from the day we arrived here, pleading with people not to write us off.

"Today's win has proved not that we've reached the end of the road, but we've proved that we can beat India, one of the strongest one-day sides in the world. The boys deserve all the credit."

Indian captain Saurav Ganguly struggled to explain the poor performance from his side.

"It was quite a surprising display from us," he said.

"It's very difficult to find the reasons for this loss, but it's possible we were a bit complacent after beating them so easily last week.

"They got 246 and we never built a partnership to chase 246. We played poor cricket for all 100 overs.

"All credit to them though - they batted well and then fielded brilliantly. I thought they did a fantastic job."

The tournament continues on Friday when India take on South Africa at Buffalo Park in East London.

Mail Cricket Editor