Vettori hails bowlers as Kenya out for 69

Kenya 69 New Zealand 7

(GETTY)

The new Zealand captain Daniel Vettori saluted his fast bowlers after an emphatic 10-wicket victory in which they bundled out Kenya for 69 in their opening match of the World Cup in Chennai yesterday.

Hamish Bennett (4 for 16), Jacob Oram (3 for 2) and Tim Southee (3 for 13) skittled Kenya who folded up inside 24 overs. New Zealand wasted little time in rattling off the required runs, with Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum remaining unbeaten on 39 and 26 respectively.

Vettori insisted it was important to make a good start and hailed his pace bowlers who shared the Kenya wickets between them. "The wicket had a bit of variable bounce, which our seamers exploited. It was a great performance from the bowlers," said Vettori. "It was good to start like this. The victory will stand us in good stead for the match against Australia on Friday."

Losing captain Jimmy Kamande admitted they were overwhelmed by New Zealand's bowlers. "There was nothing wrong in the wicket. It was the areas New Zealand bowled," he said. "New Zealand came very hard at us. We have to learn from this performance today. There are some more games coming up for us."

Man of the match Bennett hoped his team had ended the recent bad run of form, which saw them lose one-day series against Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. "It has been tough for us," he said. The 23-year-old got three of his four wickets as lbws and revealed he had worked hard on his bowling. "I have been working on the yorker a lot, especially for the powerplays," Bennett said.