Scorecard
Ball by ball
Black Caps unconvincing against the Namibians
New Zealand kicked off their tour with a win against Namibia in Nairobi today.
The morning started badly when it was revealed rookie quick Mat Harvie was injured during a a quick training session before play. Things went from somewhat bad to slightly worse when Lou Vincent fell for just 7 runs with the score on 25, beautifully bowled by van Vuuren.
Solid contributions by Ross Taylor (79), Michael Papps (51), Peter Fulton (45) and Jacob Oram (35) ensured the Black Caps posted a respectable total against the minnows.
The Kotze brothers nabbed four wickets between them, with van Vuuren's 2-38 the pick of the Namibian bowling.
Harvie's last minute replacement Mark Gillespie struck early to clean bowl Karg for six and 19 runs later, in his first over to boot, Brendon Diamanti removed Namibia's (arguably) best batsman JB Burger for 8, fittingly caught behind by another new face - Peter McGlashan.
Kuelder and Murgatroyd then stuck it out, denying the Kiwi bowlers any easy wickets with a 147 run partnership. Kuelder was on 91 in the second last over when he was a denied a century by Jacob Oram, who caught him off the bowling of Mark Gillespie.
The Black Caps won't worry too much about not running through their weaker counterparts, but they will want to beat Kenya with a smoother performance.
New Zealand 8-256
R Taylor 79, M Papps 51
R van Vuuren 2-38, B Kotze 2-48
Namibia 3-179
D Kuelder 91, B Murgatroyd 65*
M Gillespie 2-29, B Diamanti 1-26
Man of the match: D Kuelder