Tikolo ton lifts Kenya 19 Oct, 2008 © AFP
A fighting century from skipper Steve Tikolo helped guide Kenya to a morale-boosting 95-run victory over Zimbabwe in their tri-series one-day match at the Nairobi Gymkhana club ground on Sunday. The 37-year-old Tikolo, who has had a lean spell with the bat in recent ODIs, smashed 102 off 99 balls to set up the victory and put his struggling side back into contention after losing their first game against Ireland on Saturday. He played the dominant role in the 130-run partnership for the third wicket with 21-year-old Alex Obanda (71) to lay the foundation for the victory over their erstwhile South African opponents. But Tikolo put it all to the serious pep-talk the team had on Saturday night following the embarrassing 86-run loss to Ireland which left many Kenyan fans wondering the seriousness of the home side. "We had a big chat with the boys and asked them to believe on themselves," said Tikolo. "Having been a good team, we cannot just turn very bad overnight. It is true we may have had a very bad patch but we need to keep up and play to the best of our abilities," he added. Tikolo's heroics were nearly overshadowed by the performance of the Zimbabwean seamer Chris Mpofu who took a career-best 6-52 to dismiss the hosts for 285 after winning the toss. Mpofu's previous haul was 4-42 against Bangladesh at Bogra in December 2006. | 
