Never expected victory to be so easy vs Kenya: Vettori

Chennai: New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori has said that trouncing a limp Kenyan team by bowling them out for 69 and then chasing it down in eight overs was the sort of performance New Zealand was looking for.

New Zealand had an emphatic 10-wicket victory in their opening World Cup match against bowling Kenya on Sunday.

Kenyan captain Jimmy Kamande won the toss and chose to bat first at Chennai’s M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, but they collapsed from 40 for one to 69 all out in 23.5 overs.

New Zealand’s opening batsmen Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum had no problems in the run chase, using just 48 balls to achieve the target.
“To be able to bowl this well and allow the batsmen to have such a small chase is always pleasing so we didn’t expect that. But I’m pretty happy with how we performed,” Vettori said.

The team had its fair share of worries heading into the match after spinner Nathan McCullum was hospitalised with the sort of mystery illness and Kyle Mills was ruled out with a back injury.

Earlier, Kenyan captain Kamande had said if his team went out and expressed themselves by playing their own brand of cricket they would be dangerous.

New Zealand’s next match against Australia is in Nagpur on February 25.