Canada confident after Dutch near-miss

Canada and Kenya will both be seeking their first victories of their Intercontinental Cup campaigns when the tournament resumes in King City on Friday. Kenya are currently bottom of the table after a draw against Ireland, while Canada are in fourth having lost and drawn their first two matches.

Canada, though, came extremely close to victory in their previous outing against Netherlands when rain on the final day allowed the Dutch to hold on with eight wickets down at Rotterdam.

Pubudu Dassanayake, the Canada coach, said the near-miss was a disappointment but the form of some of his key players leaves him hopeful of another strong showing. Sunil Dhaniram hit 144 against Netherlands while Umar Bhatti and Sandeep Jyoti also impressed.

"It was disappointing not to come away with full points from that game and certainly there were areas we could have done better but what it did was give us confidence," said Dassanayake. "We now go into the Kenya game knowing we can win and we will be going all out to do just that.

"Last year the team was a bit unsettled but now there is a good feeling of stability about us. There are still areas for improvement but we are definitely heading in the right direction."

Canada are without the experienced trio of John Davison, Geoff Barnett and Ian Billcliff which gives an opportunity to three of the Under-19 team that won the Americas Championship. The most eye-catching selection is 15-year-old Nitesh Kumar who Dassanayake said is "one of the best batsmen I have ever seen at that age" and he could bat in the middle order.

For Kenya there will be pressure on the experienced Steve Tikolo, Collins Obuya and Thomas Odoyo while 19-year-old Seren Waters is expected to open the batting. Maurice Ouma leads the side and is likely to take the gloves in place of the dropped Kennedy Otieno.

Canada Ashish Bagai (capt), Umar Bhatti, Qaiser Ali, Rustam Bhatti, Rizwan Cheema, Khurram Chohan, Sunil Dhaniram, Jimmy Hansara, Sandeep Jyoti, Shaheed Keshvani, Nitesh Kumar, Hiral Patel, Abdool Samad, Henry Osinde, Zameer Zahir.

Kenya Maurice Ouma (capt), Jimmy Kamande, Alex Obanda, Steve Tikolo, Collins Obuya, Thomas Odoyo, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Lameck Onyango, Peter Ongondo, Hiren Varaiya, Rakep Patel, Elijah Otieno, Seren Waters, David Obuya, Alfred Luseno.