Cricket league resumes at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos

Activities have resumed at the Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Oval in Lagos days after the upgraded part of the facility was inaugurated.

On Sunday, the division one sides of the Club Cricket Committee (CCC) league in Lagos took turns to chase ranking points as Rising Stars contested with Government College Ibadan (GCI) Cricket Club.

The GCI had to either stop the rampaging Stars who before the encounter went four wins in four games or face a steeper road to the top of the CCC’s log.

But it was the Stars who won the toss and decided to chase, and it did not take them long before they started to make inroads into the GCI batting lineup.

The tie went from 33-2 to 54-5 and it was looking like the GCI batters were still trying to adjust to the new surface, struggling to the 120th ball and closing on 111-6.

During the Stars’ innings, they braved up and gave the GCI a chase, putting up 37 runs before the first wicket fell.

They carried on with that until the fifth wicket fell and GCI went on a spree. From 101-4, they took five more in succession to choke the Asians to 111-9, but Rising Stars crawled over the victory line with 2 balls remaining.

A win by one wicket saw them rising above GCI into 2nd place, behind league leader Ibeju Lekki Cricket Club.

In the second encounter, Lagos Asian Cricket Club (LACC) squared with Government College Ughelli (GCU) Cricket Club, with LACC coming into their encounter looking for a second win of the season while GCU looked for a 3rd win.

A quick loss of 2 wickets in 2 overs from LACC jolted the GCU team back to reality as it lost 3rd in the 4th over and a 5th in the 6th over.

Itua Lucky dropped the anchor and as the team batted around him, he helped his team with contribution from Olumide Adeniran to a decent total of 120-7 in 20 overs.

LACC got determined as their innings took off, with the opening pair putting up 37 before Afroz Alam secured one to the keeper off Destiny Chilemanya’s bowling.

However, their batting frailties started to show again after the partnership ebbed as their entire middle order failed to respond to the firepower of GCU who won by 10 runs at 110-7.

Uyi Akpata, president of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), who graced the fixtures hailed the gradual return of the usual crowd at the facility.

“The grounds have a history with it and among other things it is fulfilling that the traditional home of Cricket in the country is now fully a turf,” he said.

“I watched the first match online and the view of the live broadcast on Youtube was beautiful and we can feel the natural bounce and quality of the cricket played is second to none ever that was played on the ground.”