A match-winning unbeaten partnership of 129 runs for the 5th wicket between Peter Borren (86 n.o off 98) & Michael Rippon (56 n.o off 74) helped Netherlands ease past Kenya by 6 wickets in the 1st WCL match played at East London in South Africa.
Batting first, Kenya managed to score 226/7 in their 50 overs with some good contributions from Colins Obuya (72 off 77), Dhiren Gondaria (53 off 60) & Nelson Odhiambo (39 off 62) that took the team total past 200. Kenya were in some trouble at 117/5 in the 30th over before Obuya & Odhiambo came together to make a 95 runs partnership for the 6th wicket.
Dutch spinners Michael Rippon (3/30), Peter Seelaar (1/29) and van der Merwe (0/35 off 10) bowled brilliantly in the middle overs to restrict the run scoring for the Kenyans. Tim van der Gugten also picked up 2/58 from his 10 overs.
In reply, Wesley Barresi (25), Stephan Myburgh (21) & Ben Cooper (24) got out cheaply and when van der Merwe also fell without scoring many, Kenya had Netherlands in a spot of bother at 98/4 in the 26th over.
However, Borren and Rippon had panther ideas and took their time to settle in and started rotating the strike regularly and ensured that both stayed till the end unbeaten and took the team to victory scoring 227/4 in 48.5 overs. Shem Ngoche (2/47) was the best Kenyan bowler on display.
With this win, Netherlands (18 points) are 3 points clear of Scotland (15 points) and are guaranteed a World Cup Qualifiers spot in the 2018 event.
