Cricket: Nigeria bounce back to beat Rwanda at women’s T20i tourney

Nigeria’s female Yellow Greens on Wednesday rose from their 49 runs defeat to Tanzania on match day 2 of the ongoing NCF women’s T20 invitational tournament to hand Rwanda women’s team a five-wicket defeat at the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval, Lagos.

Captain Blessing Etim won the toss and chose to field, leaving Marie Diane of Rwanda and her teammates to bat first.

A miss-fielding in the first over gave Nigeria a shaky start. However, the girls picked up form when Shola Adekunle, the teenage star, sparked a deadly bowling squad against Rwanda.

The 26-year-old Adekunle took 4 wickets with precision while Peculiar Agboya and Favour Eseigbe grabbed 3 and 2 wickets respectively. The shock kept the Rwandans’ total runs at 95 as they lost 9 wickets in 20 overs (95/9).

The second-inning chase for Nigeria started on a good note when Favour Eseigbe and Esther Sandy soaked the pressure poured out in revenge by Rwanda. Favour and Esther’s partnership gave Nigeria 58 runs before Esther’s wicket fell.

Rwanda saw an opportunity to tighten the screw and soon pressure shifted to Nigeria with 4 successive falls of wickets (Sandy at 11.4, Peculiar at 12.2, Blessing at 12.4, and Piety Lucky at 14.4).

It took the pair of Salome Sunday and Christabel Chukwuonye to stabilise the team and drive them to the needed five wickets victory. Nigeria finished at 99/5 win, with Adekunle pocketing the N150,000 prize for the player of the match award.

Leke Oyede, Nigeria’s coach, said the team’s bench learned from the victories garnered and losses suffered.

“The event is good and is helping us make tweaks here and there, which I believe is good as we progress and prepare for crucial days ahead,” Oyede said.

Meanwhile, Tanzania also picked their second victory of the event on the day with a 98-run win over Sierra Leone, leaving the West Africans as the only team without a win so far.

Matches resume on Thursday with Tanzania and Rwanda meeting first before Nigeria and Sierra Leone take to the pitch later.