Cricket: Lagos, Edo in men’s championship semis

Lagos and Edo states served a nail-biting duel in the closing match of pool A at the national men’s cricket championship in Benin city, with the host state humbling Lagos with 4 runs.

But despite the loss, Lagos topped the group leaving Edo to the second place, while dashing the hopes of Anambra who had earlier in the day shoved Kwara aside and hoping to ride on Edo’s defeat to the semis.

Uthe Ogbimi, national under-19 coach, who is also working closely with the head coach at the event, praised what he called Edo’s doggedness, saying it brought out the best in the players.

“I think the two teams that qualified justified their place in the semis though both teams displayed vulnerability that I think they should address as the game progresses to the 50 over rounds,” Ogbimi said.

TheCable understands that the Anambra and Kwara teams will now leave the tournament.

Meanwhile, Rivers, Ebonyi, Kaduna and Oyo in pool B will take to the turf wickets for their preliminaries from Thursday to Saturday at the Edo Boys High School in Benin city.

Kaduna and Rivers will open the rounds for the group while Ebonyi, a last-minute invitee to replace Delta that pulled out of the event, and Oyo will duel later in the afternoon.

Enesi Habeeb, technical director of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), said the event has lived up to its billing as majority of the players had widened the national team’s considerations through their brilliant displays.

“We have got what we expected from the competition and I think this would reflect in technical details and ultimately benefit team selection. It’s obvious we have a lot of work to do and I believe the national head coach, Asanka Gurusinha who is also on the ground has taken useful notes,” Habeeb said.

The championship would be rounded off on March 31.