Qatar Beat Kenya by 4 Runs — Kenya Lose Five Wickets for 3 Runs With the Line in Sight

Cricket keeps its cruellest arithmetic for the last fifteen balls. At 276 for 5 in the 48th over, Kenya needed 8 runs to beat Qatar at Ruaraka. Francis Mutua had just hit three sixes in 33 off 16 balls, Irfan Karim, who had retired hurt on 86, was available to come back, and the hosts had wickets to spare. What followed was five wickets for 3 runs in eight deliveries.

Mutua was caught by Zeeshan Haider off Muhammad Asim at 276. Shem Ngoche went three balls later, Sukhdeep Singh the ball after that, Karim returned and was bowled by Owais Ahmed at 279, and Vraj Patel fell next ball. Kenya were all out for 279 in 48.5 overs, chasing 284. Earlier Zubair Ali's 92 had anchored Qatar's 283 after Kenya chose to field. Qatar won by 4 runs.

Two days after his unbeaten hundred in the chase of 332 against Kuwait, Zubair Ali was Qatar's innings once more. He and Shahzeb Afridi put on 80 in 81 balls for the first wicket, Afridi's 43 off 39 coming with six fours and two sixes before Shem Ngoche had him caught by Dhiren Gondaria. Zubair then added 67 with Imal Liyanage (34 off 34), and at 147 for 1 in the 25th over Qatar were set for something well past 300.

It didn't happen. Rakep Patel had Liyanage caught by Sukhdeep Singh at 147 and Zeeshan Haider caught and bowled at 159, Vraj Patel trapped Zubair lbw for 92 with the score on 191, and from 147 for 1 the last nine wickets fell for 136. Muhammad Asim's 37 off 34 and, importantly, Daniel Louis's 33 off 29 from number nine, which took Qatar from 251 for 8 to 275, were the runs that turned out to be the margin. Five balls of the innings went unused.

With the ball, Ikramullah Khan bowled Gondaria in the fifth over and later had Rakep Patel caught by Afridi, Owais Ahmed bowled Subham Patel at 86, Shahzaib Jamil ran out Sachin Gill at 210, and Louis bowled Sachin Bhudia at 215. Then Asim and Ahmed shared the last five between them.

The decision to field was justified by the bowling. Rakep Patel's 10-1-48-3, Sachin Gill's 2 for 39 and Ngoche's 2 for 39 in ten overs bowled Qatar out with five balls to spare, which on a ground that had seen 666 runs two days earlier was good work. Patel then made 42 off 47 and shared 77 with Irfan Karim for the third wicket, and Karim's 86 off 105, with eight fours, was the innings the chase was built around. Subham Patel's 38 off 60 and Gill's 24 off 19 kept the rate manageable.

Karim retiring hurt with the score on 228 for 5 was the first blow, and it is hard to be critical of a side for that. Sukhdeep Singh and Mutua responded with 48 in 28 balls, Mutua's three sixes bringing the target to within 8. The ending, five wickets in eight balls, is the part Kenya will have to look at. Qatar conceded 15 extras, and Ikramullah's nine overs went for 71, so the runs were there. What was missing was one calm head when it got tight.

Mutua's dismissal at 47.3, caught by Haider off Asim, is the one the match turns on. He had hit 33 off 16 and the chase was 8 away. Ngoche was caught behind by Liyanage off Asim at 47.6 and Singh was caught by a substitute off Ahmed at 48.1, two wickets for 2 runs in four balls that brought Karim back to the crease. Ahmed bowled him at 48.4 and had Vraj Patel caught by Mujeeb-ur-Rehman at 48.5. From 276 for 5 and 8 needed, Kenya scored 3 more runs.

Ahmed batted at number 11, made 2, and was the last man out in Qatar's innings. He then bowled 6.5 overs for 33 and took four wickets, without a wide or a no-ball. He bowled Subham Patel in the 19th over to end the second-wicket stand, and in the final over of the match he took two wickets in two balls, bowling Karim and having Vraj Patel caught by Mujeeb-ur-Rehman. A fast bowler who can finish a game that close with the ball in his hand has done the hardest job in the format.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we'll have full analysis for the next encounter.

Qatar have now chased 332 and defended 283 in the space of three days in Nairobi, and Zubair Ali has made 192 runs for once out across the two games. For Kenya, the hosts, the next day brought a 123-run defeat to Jersey, so the week turned quickly. The bowling here was good enough, and the top order gave the chase a platform. The lesson is about the finish: at 276 for 5 with 8 to get, the job is to take singles and stay in, and five wickets for 3 runs says that message did not get through.