Canada rebounded from two losses in 50 over matches in today’s T20 encounter with Kenya, some excellent bowling from Junaid Siddiqui, supported by Osinda and Hansra restricting Kenya to 126/9. Hiral Patel provided the backbone of Canada’s reply with 40, and a much needed 5-wicket win resulted.

Kenya won the toss and chose to bat. The third over proved eventful, with Obanda smashing three boundaries, Osinde conceding 5 wides with a big bouncer, and having Obanda well-caught by keeper Hamza Tariq from the last ball – 21 runs, one wicket. Osinde took a second wicket in his third over, then Junaid Siddiqui had Ouma lbw and Mishra caught. Another wicket for Osinde made it four wickets in 8 balls, and Kenya were in trouble at 38/5, which rapidly became 44/6 when Junaid Siddiqui struck again. Patel and Odhiambo stopped the slide with a fifty run partnership, broken by Hansra in the 16th over – 95/7. A superb catch on the boundary by Manny Aulakh accounted for Ngoche. Raskep Patel’s 48* took Kenya to 126/9 from their twenty overs. Junaid Siddiqui returned the splendid figures of 4-0-10-3, Osinde took 3/36, and Jimmy Hansra 2/13.

Patel and Cheema opened for Canada, but Cheema was unable to make an impact, bowled by spinner Ngoche in the second over. Gunasekera (18, 17 balls) was caught by bowler Varaiya with the score on 39 in the 8th over. Nitish Kumar made a quick 19 from 12 balls but was bowled trying an overly ambitious shot. Patel had anchored the innings, but fell to a slower ball for 40 at a run a ball with 30 runs required from 31 balls. Hansra and Limbada saw Canada home for a 5 wicket win with 9 balls to spare.

CricInfo scorecard
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