On a bowler friendly pitch, India were restricted to 220 for seven in 50 overs after being asked to bat. But they struck back to bundle out Kenya for 162 in 50 overs. Vijay Bharadwaj turned out to be India's hero, scoring 41 runs and taking three wickets. His 41 came in company of skipper Ajay Jadeja. They raised 55 in quick time for the fifth wicket.

The Kenyans had a bad start to their chase. After losing Kennedy Otieno off the first ball, they never settled down to make a match of the 221-run victory target.

Kenya lost one more wicket ten runs later when Maurice Odumbe (5) was caught behind off Prasad.

Ravindu Shah and Alpesh Vadher joined together for a promising stand. But Shah left at the team's score of 42, getting caught by Sunil Joshi off Debasis Mohanty. Thereafterthere were small contributions but nothing was of significant value to bother India.

There was a brief entertaining stage for the hosts when Tony Suji and Thomas Odoyo raised 57 for the seventh wicket. But it was too little too late.Earlier, Kenya fielded and bowled superbly, led by Maurice Odumbe who picked up three wickets. Batting in overcast conditions, the Indians got off to a tentative start and could muster only 42 runs from the first 15 overs.

Playing in only the second match of his career, Bhardwaj played a cameo knock after the more established names in the side struggled against the Kenyans.

Bhardwaj (41 not out) and Jadeja (31) put on 55 runs for the fifth wicket off only 42 balls to salvage India from a sorry 134 for four in 39 overs.The tall Karnataka right hander simply exploded as he went after the bowling and scored his runs off just 30 balls hitting three fours and a six off Odumbe.

Jadeja, went in the 35th over with the score reading 116, and played a typical busybee innings,running quick singles and laced his knock with two sixes -- one each of Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo.

SCOREBOARD

India: Sadogoppan Ramesh st Otieno b Odumbe 50, Saurav Ganguly c Odoyo b M Suji 21, Rahul Dravid c Vadher b Odumbe 30, Ajay Jadeja run out 31, Nikhil Chopra c & b Tikolo 13, Vijay Bhardwaj not out 41, Robin Singh b Odoyo 3, Sunil Joshi c & b Odumbe 6, MSK Prasad not out 4. Extras (b 3, lb 1, w 17): 21. Total (for 7 wickets, in 50 overs): 220

Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-111, 3-116, 4-134, 5-189,6-198, 7-211

Bowling: Suji 8-1-25-1, Odoyo 10-0-35-1, T Suji 7-1-24-0, Ababu 4-1-15-0, Tikolo 10-0-49-1, Sheikh 3-0-17-0, Odumbe 8-1-51-3

Kenya: K Otieno c M Prasad b Prasad 0, R Shah c Joshi b Mohanty 26, S Tikolo c Chopra b Mohanty 8, M Odumbe c M Prasad b Prasad 5, A Vadher c&b Bharadwaj 18, H Modi st Prasad b Chopra 10, T Odoyo c V Prasad b Bharadwaj 33, T Suji st Prasad b Bharadwaj 27, M Sheikh c M Prasad b V Prasad 1, M Suji not out 11, J Ababu b Chopra11. Extras (w5, lb7): 12. Total (all out, 50 overs) 162.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-11, 3-21, 4-42, 5-66, 6-71, 7-133, 8-138, 9-140.

Bowling: Prasad 9-2-26-3, Mohanty 8-2-25-2, Joshi 10-3-24-0, Chopra 10-2-18-2, Bharadwaj 7-0-38-3, Singh 6-1-24-0.

Result: India won by 58 runs.

Man of the match: Vijay Bharadawaj.