zimcricketnews.com

Groups A and C got underway yesterday, with Australia meeting Scotland and Kenya facing Canada. There was no fairytale for the Scots, sadly as the Aussies ran up 334/6 from their alotted overs, with Ricky Ponting picking up 113 as the Scottish bowlers proved unable to get to grips with some aggressive Aussie batting. Come their own turn with the bat, the Saltires again looked somewhat out of their depth - only Colin Smith, with 51 runs to his name, put up any real fight as McGrath and Tait scythed through the batting order. The 203-run winning margin will probably have the anti-Associate mob baying again.

Better luck for Kenya, though, in their Group C opener against Canada. The two sides have met several times this year already - the record before this match was 3-1 to Kenya, and yesterday's outing stuck to the form book as Kenya eased themselves to another win. Canada were bowled out for a respectable 199 in the first innings, with a series of comedic run-outs in the final overs somewhat spoiling their effort. Geoff Barnett top-scored with 41, while Jimmy Kamande (2/25) and Steve Tikolo (2/34) did the work for Kenya with the ball. Tikolo again showed his class with the bat, unbeated on 72 after Kenya rattled off the required total inside 44 overs & for the loss of just 3 wickets. What odds on Kenya carrying the Associate banner to the Super 8, I wonder?
Australia beat Scotland by 203 runs
Kenya beat Canada by 7 wickets

Thursday's matches: Sri Lanka v Bermuda in Group B, and the important one (for me, anyway), Ireland v Zimbabwe in Group D.