Lara, Collins star against Kenya

It took an innings of raw courage, as much as instinctive class, from Brian Lara, and high-quality bowling by the constantly improving Pedro Collins for the West Indies to overcome Kenya's spirited challenge in the ICC Champions Trophy yesterday.

It ended with a distressed Lara in a Colombo hospital for the second time in nine months, awaiting tests on suspected hepatitis, a liver ailment.

During the West Indies tour here last December, he fractured and dislocated his left elbow in an on-field accident that kept him out of the game for four months.

Careless Kenyan fielding that missed the double world record-holder at 37, 45 and 61 on his way to 111 - and, less significantly, Shivnarine Chanderpaul at three and 36 in his laboured 40 off 76 balls - also aided the West Indies to get home by 29 runs.

Had they not converted a clear chance of victory into a stunning, last-ball loss to South Africa in their opening match last Friday, the result would have booked their semifinal place.

That possibility is now beyond their control, depending as it does on Kenya somehow upsetting South Africa on Friday.

Summoning the willpower to survive the physical torment that he clearly endured throughout his two-and-a-half hours in the middle, Lara defied the sweltering 35-degree heat and high humidity to compile his 15th One-Day International hundred.

His first, unconvincing, 50 took him 80 deliveries as he battled against the illness that began to take hold the previous day.

Although needing the on-field attention of his non-playing teammates and lying flat on his back, panting uncomfortably, during the refreshment break, he plundered his next 61 runs off a mere 41.

It was acceleration, complemented by Ramnaresh Sarwan's busy, run-a-ball 20 and Wavell Hinds' two breathtaking sixes in 20 from just seven balls, that gave the innings an emphatic conclusion.

The last five overs yielded 56 runs, boosting the 50-overs total to 260 for six. Kenya were bowled out with five balls left, for 232.

Collins, offering nothing to the batsmen with his controlled, accurate left-arm movement, immediately set Kenya back with a wicket in his second over, bowling Kennedy Obuya round his legs.

Every time he was called back to check Kenya's worrying advance, led by captain Steve Tikolo's 93 off 91 balls with nine fours, the left-armer responded with a restraining spell.

His figures when he appropriately formalised the result with the first ball of the last over by bowling Martin Suji were 9.1-4-18-3. They were his best in the shorter game. Not many have had better.

On a pitch of slow pace offering encouraging turn, batting was never straightforward. Chanderpaul, as he did against South Africa, made it seem as difficult as wringing water from stone. Until he finally found his range, and rode his luck, it also mocked Lara's timing.

The off-spin of Maurice Odumbe, Man Of The Match in Kenya's unforgettable win over the West Indies in the World Cup six years ago, and Tikolo, another survivor from that time, and the leg-spin of Collins Obuya presented the main problems.

Odumbe gave up only 21 from his ten overs for the wicket of Chanderpaul, caught behind cutting for 40 in the 29th over.

At the start, the faster bowlers kept Chris Gayle scoreless his first 15 balls but the tall left-hander then lashed two long sixes off successive balls from Thomas Obuya, one of three Kenyan brothers in the side - two named Obuya and the other Otieno. He had made 33 off 42 balls when he topedged a catch. For the next 17.4 overs, as they added 55, Chanderpaul and Lara could hardly get the ball off the square, so the West Indies were only 115 for two when Chanderpaul went.

At Hooper's dismissal in the 41st, caught at deep midwicket, they were 179 for three but Lara was then finding his range, finishing with two sixes and eight fours when bowled by Tikolo with 11 balls remaining in spite of his distress. Sarwan and Hinds simply added to the momentum.

Collins apart, the early West Indies bowling was ragged, as Tikolo, long since proven a batsman of Test quality, made it look even more so.