Cricket: Piety shines as Nigeria falters in U-19 W/Cup qualifiers

Nigeria’s Lucky Piety’s 106-run off 42 balls earned her the award of Batman of the maiden African U-19 Women Cricket World Cup qualifiers that ended in Gaborone, Botswana on Monday.

The Nigerians went down in their first two matches to Rwanda (by 9 runs) and Tanzania (by 115 runs) before finding their footing in the last two encounters against Mozambique (won by 9 wickets) and Malawi (won by 115 runs).

Emeka Igwillo, general manager of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), said the team could have fared better but their emotion robbed them of the opportunity to settle in well in the qualifiers.

“They are school kids with limited exposure and the majority of them were getting to that level for the first time. They were overwhelmed and lost the chance to be in the top four,” Igwillo said.

Piety’s brilliant run was in Nigeria’s last encounter against Malawi where she had stepped in with Oseyande Omonkhobhio after fall of first-two wickets.

She made the fastest half ton of the tournament and eventually the fastest of the tournament to take her team’s total to 191/7 at the end of their 20 overs in the game Nigeria won by 117 runs.

The Nigerian team was led by Onome Ogbenekevwe.