Kieran Kenny reflected on his journey from playing for a community club to making his First-Class debut for Western Province Blitz against the Titans at Newlands.
Kenny, who turns 23 in January next year, made the step up into 4-day cricket after Western Province were forced to dig deep into their reserves after the squad was decimated by SA A call-ups and injuries.
Tony de Zorzi, Beuran Hendricks and George Linde are three WP players in the SA A set-up taking on India A in Bloemfontein while Nandre Burger, Tshepo Moreki, Wayne Parnell and David Bedingham sat out the last round of fixtures due to injuries.
With plenty of experience missing the home team gave debuts to batters Gavin Kaplan and Daniel Smith while Kenny was the third greenhorn given an opportunity against a powerful Titans outfit that boasted Proteas opener and Test captain Dean Elgar.
Having been selected in the 15-man earlier in the week, Kenny was only told the morning of the first day that he is in the starting line-up as Parnell had not sufficiently recovered from a niggling calf issue.
A bustling seamer with a whippy action, Kenny knew he would be the first of the trio of debutants to showcase his skills after his captain Zubayr Hamza had won the toss and elected to field first.
“Just being given my cap before the start of play made me a bit emotional but I didn’t want to show it,” Kenny told Cricket Fanatics Magazine with a grin.
“Just walking out and taking the field at Newlands was a dream a true…as a kid, you dream of that moment obviously.
“Then I found myself walking alongside the South African captain, I didn’t know if I should greet him, maybe have a little chirp, but I decided not to.”
The WP team endured a tough start as Elgar and his opening partner Grant Mokoena got down to business and started seeing off the new ball taken by Basheer Walters and Mihlali Mpongwana.
Kenny came on to bowl first change and admitted to being a bit nervous and it showed as he dished up a few loose balls that were pounced on and put away to the boundary.
“I didn’t think I bowled badly in that first spell but it just shows how you have to be on your mark every single ball at this level,” he said.
“In club cricket, you can bowl four good balls and the two loose ones won’t go for boundaries and you can still have a good over.”
As the first day progressed, the Titans’ opening pair tore into the WP bowling attack and both Elgar and Mokoena struck centuries in a mammoth stand of 231.
Kenny’s moment of joy came late on the first day when he nabbed his maiden First-Class wicket as he had Titans skipper Neil Brand caught and bowled after the batter found a leading edge and the ball looped back to the bowler.
It was double-delight for the seamer just three overs later when Mokoena, on 154, went for a pull shot but only found the bottom edge and wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne took a good low catch.
“The first wicket was crazy, Brand was already in his forties and when the ball popped up back to me it was almost like time stood still,” Kenny explained.
“When I finally took the catch I almost cried, to be honest. I was really emotional as it hit me that I took my first wicket for Province at Newlands.
“That first wicket was such a big moment for me and, even though it was a long and tiring day in the field, I found some more energy and got rewarded with my second scalp.”
The Titans batted well into the second day and eventually declared on a massive total of 647-7 in 172 overs with Kenny finishing with figures of 2-97 in 21 overs.
The home side went on to lose the game by an innings and 139 runs with Kenny scoring a single in both innings when it was his turn at the crease with the willow, dismissed twice by off-spinner Simon Harmer who completed 10 wickets in the match.
It was a big defeat for WP but for Kenny, it was an experience he will treasure as he got to pick the brains of WP bowling consultant, and former Proteas seamer, Rory Kleinveldt and will want to use it to kick on in his career.
A product of United Cricket Club, where he has played all his club cricket since Under-10, Kenny grew up in the sporting community of Salt River located just outside the heart of Cape Town where he still lives with his grandparents.
He is currently still a member of one of the local football clubs in the area, Salt River Celtic, and admits football was and might still be his favoured sport.
“Salt River is a close-knit community, when one person does well in anything everyone celebrates. After the first day against the Titans, I had plenty of messages on Whatsapp and Facebook congratulating me and I am still getting them,” he said.
“There’s a lot of people in the community that has done and continue to do a lot for me, whether it was to just give me lift to the field for games or to the numerous trials I had to attend, I cannot thank them enough.”
Kenny joined United Cricket Club at the age of 8 after his friend’s mother got him to go to training and he has not looked back since.
“I was already playing soccer for a club and I was playing in the street with her son and one day she told me to just go with them to cricket training and I was taught how to bowl,” Kenny recalls.
“They were already part of United, I think she might have been the scorer for her son’s team if I’m not mistaken and I found the club to have a real family feel to it as plenty of parents were involved.”
Kenny then had a knack of taking plenty of wickets at the junior levels and in a few years found himself at the Under-15 Western Province trials.
He eventually made the WP Under-15 B team and then graduated to the Under-17 A team and said he owes it all to the coaches and parents at United that put in the time and effort to invest in him.
The current first-team coach at United is former First-Class cricketer Rasheed Lewis who plied his trade for Western Province and Free State.
Kenny also revealed while he was a junior at the club he looked up to the senior team that included SA internationals Dane Piedt and Dane Patterson while Yaseen Vallie, who is now a teammate for WP, was also a member.
In 2017 Kenny made the Cape Cobras Cubs line-up where his teammates at the time included Ricardo Vasconcelos, Jesse Christensen and Michael Cohen who have all since gone on to play professional cricket.
A big opportunity came in March this year when Mpumalanga decided to give Kenny an opportunity to play for a semi-professional tournament in Potchefstroom.
He played two three-day matches, against North West and Eastern Province, and also took part in two 50-over contests and took 12 wickets for the week.
Kenny admits the call-up to the Western Province team came as a bit of a surprise as just a week earlier he was playing in a spicy club match against big rivals Primrose.
Not one to set lofty goals for himself to then just be disappointed, Kenny says he will give his best in whatever team he plays in and will see where it takes him.
He concluded: “I don’t want to set myself up for failure by setting my expectations over the top. I keep telling myself to keep working hard whether it is at the club or the WP Colts side and the rewards will come.
“The best advice I have received is that whatever level you playing at, you don’t know who is watching so just give your best. And if anything higher up comes my way I should be ready for it.”
Photo: Shaun Roy/Sports Inc
