Kenya will rise again, vows Mishra

Beaten black and blue by their opponents in the ongoing World Cup, Kenya batsman Tanmay Mishra on Friday vowed that cricket in the country will rise again.

The Africans, who stunned the world by making the semi-finals of the 2003 edition in South Africa, are going through a difficult phase in the current edition having lost all their group matches.

"We're going through a transition period. The structures are being put in place. To be honest it's a bit late, but it's getting in place right now. We're redeveloping everything, cricket is spreading, we just have to give it time," Mishra said ahead of their match against defending champions Australia at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Sunday.

"In the next three or four years, this team will rise up again and we'll continue to fight hard and provide success for Kenya," he added.

"A lack of regular cricket at the highest level has been our downfall."

"It's a bit frustrating but we can't do anything about it," he said.

"There's nothing much really to add to that because you can't really play cricket at associate level and then come up and try to compete against the big boys. It's a challenge as it is. It's just a lack of fixtures."

Reminded about their loss to Canada, Mishra said the defeat was a "difficult one to swallow".

"We haven't done well, our top order hasn't really connected. It was a really difficult one to swallow. It was just that the top-order collapsed and we were 57 for five.

"We spoke about it and now we've got Australia and we've just still got to stay positive and do the basics right. We've got to bat 50 overs and bat them positively, not just bat them.

"Australia are the world champions and they are 31 games unbeaten at the World Cup, so it will be difficult but hopefully we can come up and give a good show," Mishra said.