The semifinal of the on-going national men’s cricket championship in Benin City, Edo state, gets underway on Monday as Lagos and Kaduna take to the oval for the final’s ticket.
While Lagos seems to have rested four after losing to a youthful Edo side on Wednesday, Kaduna is coming to this match after being handed a defeat by Oyo with the last ball on Saturday.
The ODI series (fifty overs) that the matches assume from the semifinal leaves room for a new look and different approach.
The Kaduna team will field Sylvester Ameh Okpe, the national U-19 captain, as its captain while the Lagos team will field Ademola Onikoye and Joshua Ayannike, the past and current national captain of the men’s team respectively.
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The Kaduna team would also field Jimoh Mohammed, Daniel Gim, Gershon Yusuf, Simeon Samson, Danladi Isaac and Joel Tabat Joseph who have all played for the country.
On the Lagos team list, Leke Oyede, Mustapha Yussuff, Femi Oduyebo, Sesan Adedeji, Taiwo Mohammed, Mohammed Moshood and Ayinde Tunde will all be putting their reputation at stake for the epic match.
“These are two teams with experience on their sides as against the two other semi finalists, Oyo and Edo,” Uyi Akpata, vice-president of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, said.
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“This makes this match one to watch. We will have a number of our technical team members on the sidelines to see these players’ performance and we hope that they won’t disappoint their states in addition to giving us cause to cheer.”
The second semifinal match will hold between Oyo and Edo states on Tuesday while the winners of both semis will meet in the final on Wednesday.
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