BENONI, Oct 7: Kenya captain Maurice Odumbe predicted a torrid time for his team after they were outclassed in their opening triangular series match against South Africa on Sunday.

South Africa scored 160 for three in reply to Kenya’s 159 for seven to win by seven wickets with 16.2 overs to spare. It was the home side’s second win after they beat India by six wickets in Johannesburg on Friday.

“I think we will have to struggle for every run and for every wicket,” Odumbe told reporters. “If the opposing batsmen make mistakes we just have to grab them, because I don’t think our bowling is penetrative enough to bowl sides out.”

Steve Tikolo top-scored for Kenya with a dogged 68 not out.

“There were a lot of runs in the wicket today, but in the last 10 overs Steve probably faced about 10 balls,” Odumbe said.

“We’ve learnt a lot from today’s match — how to occupy the crease and make sure we have a decent start. We are quite capable of playing quickies, but we don’t get to play quality sides like South Africa often enough.”

Kenya face India in Bloemfontein on Friday.

“India are always dangerous, they’ve got players like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid,” Odumbe said.

South African captain Pollock said of the Kenyans: “It’s very difficult to judge them on one game.

“It wasn’t an easy batting wicket — the ball wasn’t coming on — so you can’t judge them on this performance.”—Reuters