Cricket: Nigeria finish second as Tanzania win women’s T20i in Lagos

Tanzania women’s cricket team won the fifth edition of the NCF women’s T20i invitational tournament at the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval in Lagos on Sunday evening.

The east Africans beat their Sierra Leonean counterparts by a whopping 92 runs in their last match of the tournament to establish supremacy.

Neema Pius, captain of Tanzania, said she was not surprised that the overall victory went in their favour, despite the early slip that saw them lose to Rwanda in the their first match.

“We knew the Nigerian tournament was important to us because we would be proceeding to the All Africa Games in Ghana from Lagos. So we needed this as our preparation,” the captain said.

Nigeria, the defending champion, settled for a second place after the Female Yellow Greens held down their arch-rival Rwanda to secure a 20-run victory in the last match of the competition.

Pride and a jostle for the second place motivated the Nigerians as they batted had to quickly set a 110/8, with Lucky Piety contributing 28 runs (including four boundaries) while Esther Sandy (17), Salome Sunday (11), and Victory Igbinedion (11) also made good contributions to the total.

In the second inning, however, the bowling attack of the Nigerian women won them the game. Christabel Chukwuonye took three wickets as Peculiar Agboya chucked off two on their way to limiting the Rwandans to 90 in twenty overs.

Uyi Akpata, president of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, acknowledged that the tournament took a different turn by having a higher-ranked Tanzania joining Nigeria and Rwanda.

He also said he believes the development made all the teams better.

“The goal is to make the T20i one of the key pillars of cricket development for the female gender and it is fulfilling that purpose. The Nigerian male and female teams will be at the All Africa Games and especially the female team will be going on the back of experiences and forms they have picked from this tournament,” Akpata said.