Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

FALMOUTH, Trelawny:

THE WARM-UP matches in preparation for the World Cup tournament continue today and at Trelawny's Multi-Purpose Stadium it will be Kenya versus the Netherlands in what it is still not the real thing, promises to be a close and exciting contest.

With the West Indies playing Kenya on Monday and India taking on the Netherlands on Tuesday, the first two matches in Trelawny pitted two of the favourites, two Test-playing teams, against two of the Cinderella teams and, as expected, those two matches were one-sided affairs with the West Indies cruising to victory by 22 runs and India by a massive 182 runs.

With Kenya up against the Netherlands today, however, with the two teams more evenly matched, it should be close to a thriller with Kenya, right behind the Test teams in the rankings and winners of the last ICC World Cricket League competition involving the top six Associate Members, favourites to win.

Kenya's record at the World Cup is another reason why they should win.

In three appearances at the World Cup, Kenya have won five of their 20 matches and, in comparison to that, the Netherlands have won only one of their 11 - a 64-run beating of Namibia in Bloemfontein in 2003.

Kenya also boast a famous victory when, after ripping out the two-time champions for 93 - the eighth lowest total at the time - they shocked the world by defeating the West Indies by 73 runs in Pune during the 1996 campaign.

On top of that, after winning three matches in a row, including one against former champions Sri Lanka, they went to the semi-finals in 2003 before losing to India.

Against that, the Netherlands have never defeated one of the top teams, and with only one victory in their history, they have, obviously, never ever won more than one match in a row.

Looking at both teams for today's encounter, Kenya, with the likes of Maurice Ouma, David Obuya, Ravindu Shaw, Malhar Patel, Steve Tikolo, Tanmay Mishra and Collins Obuya as batsmen and Thomas Odoyo, Peter Ongondo, Rajesh Bhudiya, and Hiren Varaiya as bowlers, seem a better team in batting and bowling if not in the field.

After recovering from his first over of 12 deliveries against India on Tuesday, however, fast bowler Mark Jonkman looked good, so too did his partner Darron Reekers, de Leede and Ryan ten Doeschate, who pocketed five wickets for 57 runs off his 10 overs, an their batting looked inexperienced against India's master spinners, Bas Zuiderent, young Alexei Kervezee and Doeschate looked capable and could shine against Kenya's medium-pacers.