2011 Cricket World Cup Group A

Play in Group A of the 2011 Cricket World Cup took place from 20 February to 20 March 2011. The group consisted of hosts Sri Lanka, and along with them, Pakistan, Canada, Kenya, New Zealand, Australia and Zimbabwe. This phase of the tournament was played as a full round-robin amongst all seven teams, with the top four teams advancing to the Quarter Finals

The first match of Group A saw Kenya taking on the New Zealanders. Kenya won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch which seemed to have a lot of runs. However, the New Zealanders started very well, restricting the Kenyans for runs throughout the first 6 overs. The pressure paid off as Tim Southee trapped Alex Obanda in front with the score at 16 after 7 overs. Fellow opener Seren Waters and Collins Obuya tried to rebuild but Hamish Bennett came into the attack and got Waters lbw to make the score 40/2. Bennett then ripped through the Kenyan batting and got 3 more wickets in double-quick time to reduce the Kenyans to 49/5. The shattered Kenyans then folded, with only Rakep Patel offering resistance with 16 not out as Southee and Jacob Oram finished off the tail to get Kenya all out for 69 in 23.5 overs.

The New Zealand openers started off quickly in their small chase, with Martin Guptill doing most of the early scoring. Brendon McCullum was bowled off a free hit but got into his stride and finished off the game with two successive boundaries, as New Zealand reached their target in just eight overs without losing any wicket, to complete a ten-wicket win.

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