 Jimmy Kamande claimed the key wicket of John Davison |
Tikolo and team-mates Jimmy Kamande and Hirem Varaiya took five wickets between them in the Canadian innings.
"It didn't do much for the seamers but the spinners were up to the job and did the job for us," he said.
"Having seen the wicket during the warm-up games, it looked slow and I thought spinners might be a factor."
Kenya reached the semi-finals four years ago and their seven-wicket victory served notice to New Zealand and England that they should not be under-estimated this time either.
Having recently won the ICC World League on home soil, they restricted Canada to 198 and then knocked off the runs in 43 overs with Tikolo himself hitting an unbeaten 72.
"It was a good performance from us and good to see the team working as a unit.
"We have three points in the bag now and we are really looking forward to the remaining two games," said Tikolo.
Opposite number John Davison acknowledged his side would need to raise their game significantly to compete against the group's two seeded sides.
"We got everything wrong and Kenya outplayed us in every area of the game," he said.
"We lost our way when the spinners came on and they put a bit of pressure on us. We'd better get in the practice nets and scuff up the wickets because we have got some good spinners to play [against England and New Zealand].
"We have got to get together and work out how we are going to go about it because I'd imagine the pitch is going to be pretty similar."
Davison was one of the stars of the World Cup four years ago, when he smashed the fastest century in the tournament's history against West Indies.
But having opened the batting in South Africa, he now fills a middle order role.
"That's something we've talked about and we're giving the younger guys a go up the order to give them the experience," he added.
