HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka: Umar Akmal hammered 71 off 52 balls and captain Shahid Afridi took 5-16 as Pakistan swept to an opening 205-run win over a wayward Kenya at the World Cup Wednesday. The 20-year-old's Akmal's belligerent display, followed by solid knocks from experienced Misbahul Haq (65), Kamran Akmal (55) and Younus Khan (50) propelled Pakistan to 317-7 in the Group A match. Kenya, which lost to New Zealand by 10 wickets after being dismissed for 69 Sunday, never threatened in its run-chase and was dismissed for 112 in 33.1 overs at Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium. The resounding victory at the end was a sharp contrast to the early jitters Pakistan displayed as it lost both openers for a total of 12. Akmal capitalized on some fine rebuilding by his elder brother Kamran and Younus, as a blundering performance by Kenya's bowlers equaled the record of most wides in a one-day international innings by conceding 37 runs. West Indies also gave away 37 runs off wide balls against Pakistan at Brisbane in an ODI in 1989. Misbah – making his World Cup debut at the age of 36 – shared a quickfire 118-run stand off 80 balls with Akmal against the erratic Kenya bowlers, who in all conceded 46 extras. Yet Kenya could not have asked for a better start when Seren Waters took a brilliant catch at the second attempt to dismiss Mohammad Hafeez (9). Waters rolled over at short midwicket and the ball luckily bounced off his forearm. Ahmed Shehzad, who scored a century in a warmup match against Bangladesh, struggled to score just one off 18 balls before getting a leading edge that gave Kenya captain Jimmy Kamande a regulation catch at mid off. Wicketkeeper Akmal and Younus found the outfield too slow to score boundaries, but paced their 98-run stand off 110 balls well with some quick running between the wickets. Both Pakistan batsmen fell to spinners soon after completing half centuries, but gave a solid platform to Misbah and Umar to launch the attack. Umar increased the scoring rate in the batting powerplay and Pakistan added hefty 70 runs in five overs. Umar dealt severely with medium fast Elijah Otieno, taking four boundaries in his one over. Umar perished in the penultimate over to become one of new ball bowlers Thomas Odoyo's (3-41) three wickets. However, Odoyo conceded 20 of those runs by bowling wide balls. Umar was equally good in the field, running out opening batsman Waters with a brilliant direct throw before Kenya batsmen found Afridi's pacy legspinners too tough to handle. Afridi trapped Tamnay Mishra (6), Jimmy Kamande (2) and Odoyo (0) leg before wicket, before removing top scorer and No. 3 batsmen Collins Obuya (47). In between the flurry of wickets, Afridi also bowled Kenya's most experienced allrounder, Steve Tikolo (13), as Kenya lost its last three wickets without a scoring. Pakistan next plays against Sri Lanka at Colombo Saturday, while Kenya takes on the tournament co-host in the same city on Mar. 1.
