A One Day International (ODI) is an international cricket match between two representative teams, each having ODI status, as determined by the International Cricket Council (ICC).[1] An ODI differs from Test matches in that the number of overs per team is limited, and that each team has only one innings.[2] As of September 2016[update], 50 players have represented the Kenyan national team in ODIs, since its debut in 1996.[3]
Kenya gained ODI status in its own right following a strong performance in the the 1996 Cricket World Cup, a competition they qualified for by gaining a second-placed finish in the 1994 ICC Trophy.[4] The team's first ODI came against India in the 1996 Cricket World Cup, with the team then playing four further matches in the competition.[5][6] Kenya's first ODI win came in their fourth World Cup match against the West Indies.[5] The Kenyans won the game the game by 73 runs but ultimately finished last in group A.[5][7] Kenya has since qualified for four more Cricket World Cups.[4] They reached the group stage in 1999, 2007 and 2011.[8][9] At the 2003 Cricket World Cup, partly hosted in Kenya, the Kenyan team finished second in their group and in doing so qualified for the Super Sixes stage.[10] Kenya finished third in the Super Sixes stage and qualified for the semi-finals where they lost to India by 91 runs.[10][11] The Kenyan team has played 154 ODI games with the most recent coming in 2014.[5] In those 154 games, 50 individual players have represented Kenya.[3] Thomas Odoyo and Steve Tikolo have played the most ODIs for Kenya with 131 each.[12] Tikolo has scored the most runs with 3369 for the team while Odoyo has taken the most wickets with 141.[13][14]