Rippon on fire for Netherlands
SOUTH African-born Michael Rippon produced a match-winning effort to help the Netherlands claim a gripping six-wicket win over Kenya in their World Cricket League (WCL) Championship qualifying match at Buffalo Park yesterday afternoon.
Rippon shared in a match-defining unbeaten 128-run partnership with captain Peter Borren as they led the Netherlands home comfortably after being in a spot of bother on 98/4 in the 26th over.
Rippon’s effort was an all-round one, as he went on to claim 3/30 in Kenya’s innings to help restrict them to 226/7 in their 50 overs.
He stroked his way to 56 off 74 balls, while Borren cracked 86 off 98 balls to get them over the line – with seven balls to spare.
“We are absolutely thrilled with the win. I thought we bowled and fielded really well, which put pressure on Kenya, and they couldn’t really go hard at it,” Netherlands coach Ryan Campbell said.
“Peter Borren, what can you say? “He’s the captain, has a level head and he steered the ship brilliantly, and Michael Rippon putting in a great all-round effort was just fantastic.”
Contributions from South Africanopeners Wesley Barresi (25) and Stephan Myburgh (21) and No 3 Ben Cooper (24) got the Netherlands off to a decent start before their middle order stumble. Kenyan spinner Shem Ngoche was the pick of the bowlers with his 2/47 in his 10 overs.
Netherlands had earlier won the toss and elected to field.
It was a slow start from Kenya after some good pressure from the Netherlands’s opening bowlers, which paid off as Vivian Kingma had Irfan Karim (3) trapped lbw, and Timm van der Gugten had Alex Obanda (5) caught by Paul van Meekeren as Kenya slipped to 18/2 in the seventh over.
Dhiren Gondaria and captain Rakep Patel then stabilised the innings with a solid 71-run stand that almost took them to the 100run mark, before Rippon got stuck into the Kenyan middle-order.
In an impressive nine-over period for the Netherlands, Kenya only managed to score 18 runs, while Rippon removed Patel for 29, caught behind by Pieter Seelar, Gondaria for a well-played 53, caught behind by Barresi, and Gurdeep Singh for six, caught by Borren, as they tumbled to 117/5.
The experience of 36-year-old Collins Obuya came into play as he led a fightback with a 95-run partnership with Nelson Odhiambo.
Having taken Kenya past the 200 run mark, Odhiambo was caught by former Protea Roelof van der Merwe off the bowling of van der Gugten for 39, while Obuya fell in the final over for an impressive 72.