Pollock praises the 'boys'

South African cricket captain Shaun Pollock attributed his team's emphatic 208-run victory against Kenya in a one-day international of the triangular series in Cape Town to "some lusty playing by the boys."

"I thought the guys played really well. They dug in there and then really set a good foundation and a launching pad, and the guys launched. We were hoping to get as close to 300 as we could, but I think we outdid ourselves in the end thanks to some lusty playing by the boys down the order.

"It was nice to also give the other guys a bit of an opportunity for a hit and obviously give a few guys a practice before the final."

South Africa's score Monday night in the Round Robin Triangular Series was their biggest ever margin of victory in a one-day international.

Batting first, the home side set the Kenyans a target of 354. In the process, several members of the side earned themselves awards.

Gary Kirsten received a batting award for his 124 off 131 balls, as did wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, who scored the fourth fastest 50 runs in a one-day game. He got to 50 in just 19 deliveries.

Charl Langeveldt, playing in his second international, cleaned up the tail end of the Kenyan innings, bowling 9 overs and three deliveries and taking 4 for 21. He got a bowling award with colleague Justin Kemp, who took 2 for 14 in 7 overs.

Neil McKenzie, playing in his second limited overs international, was Man of the Match. Coming in at number three, he shared a score of 207 with Gary Kirsten.

Pollock also received a bowling award for 6 overs, with 1 maiden and 1 for 10. He had earlier decided to use those players who had not had much opportunity in the previous games in the series.

Kenyan captain Steve Tikolo said his team would use the lessons from the game in the last match of the series when they meet India in Paarl on Wednesday. Kenya will be looking to repeat their shock defeat of India last week.

"I think we'll go back to the drawing board and assess where we went wrong and in the next game improve on that," Tikolo said. "I think we bowled a little bit full at the end and not in the right slots."

Tikolo said that given the target set, his instruction to his batsmen was to go out and play the shots. "If it (the score) comes, all the better."

"Kenya has got nothing to prove now so they may just go in there with their guns blazing," said commentator Aslam Khota.

"India has one more game to prepare for the final to get things right; for instance their middle order, their bowling as well as their fielding, so they definitely need to put things together for Friday. I reckon the visiting Kenyans, as Africans, are going to make sure that they go out with a bang."

The final of the series takes place in Durban Friday. India will remain in South Africa for a three-Test series in November.

--Indo-Asian News Service

Mail Cricket Editor