Bermuda’s national team cricketers enjoyed a much-needed day off yesterday, many of them physically and mentally drained after back to back matches under high humidity and a blazing hot African sun.Successive defeats against the Kenyans in the three-match one-day series means the team will have only pride to play for as they seek to avoid a whitewash in the third game at the Mombasa Sports Club today.

Having drawn with their hosts in the tour-opening four-day Intercontinental Cup match in Nairobi last week, the players are determined to get something out of this series, aware that coach Gus Logie has been critical of their application and attitude during the two weekend losses. Beaten by 79 runs in Saturday’s opener, when they had Kenya on the ropes at 158 for eight only to allow two tailend batsmen to add 66 and swell the total to 224, and then thumped again on Sunday by seven wickets after a poor bowling display paved the way for their opponents to comfortably reach a target of 184, Bermuda desperately need to bounce back.

Logie has no doubt Bermuda can beat a Kenya side who rely heavily on the batting of veteran skipper Steve Tikolo and the pace of opening bowler Thomas Odoyo, whose four wickets on Sunday earned him man of the match honours.

“We have the quality to do it, it’s just a matter of the guys putting it all together,” said the coach, whose former West Indies team-mate Roger Harper was appointed coach of the Kenyans earlier this year. “We will sit down as a group and go over the two days we’ve played, looking at the replays and seeing where we can put it right.” With every player in the 15-man squad apart from teenager Rodney Trott having seen some action, Logie is again expected to shuffle his pack for today’s match.

Promoted to opener, wicketkeeper Dean Minors responded with a well-played 29 on Sunday and it’s likely he’ll keep that spot alongside Kwame Tucker, who on Saturday was Bermuda’s highest scorer with 35, allowing Stephen Outerbridge to drop down to number three.

But with Janeiro Tucker having cracked the first half-century by a Bermuda player on Sunday, and David Hemp looking solid in an innings of 41, it was the wild and wayward bowling, particularly from Kevin Hurdle who conceded 55 runs in eight overs, that dashed any hopes the visitors might have had of squaring the series.

The lanky Hurdle could make way for Stefan Kelly today, the UK-based student having been omitted for both weekend matches, while Clay Smith, who picked up a hamstring injury in last week’s four-day game in Nairobi, might be keen for another run-out in what will be Bermuda’s last game for a week.

Tomorrow the squad head for Pretoria in South Africa where they will move into the High Performance Sports Academy for five days training before taking on Holland in their final four-day Intercontinental Cup group match, starting on Tuesday, November 21.

That will be followed by four one-day internationals, two against Canada and another two against Holland.