T20i cricket: Nigeria beats Brazil in opening game

Female Yellow-Greens, Nigeria’s senior women’s cricket team, on Thursday, defeated its Brazilian counterpart in their opening match of the 2022 Kwibuka T20i women’s tournament in Kigali, Rwanda.

In the encounter which took place at the Gahanga Cricket Stadium in the Rwandan capital, the Nigerian women swept the South Americans by 8 wickets.

Female Yellow-Greens won the toss and opted to field at the 3rd match of the event. The Nigerian team held the Brazilians to 53 all out in the first innings through a well-coordinated bowling order. Rukayat Abdulrasaq took four wickets, Rachael Eseigbe had three while Rachael Samson and Lillian Ude had two and one respectively to rattle the opponents.

In the second innings, it took the Nigerian women only 10.5 overs to put up a 56-run total, leading to their first victory in the campaign.

Leke Oyede, coach of the Nigerian team, said his players would improve in the ongoing competition. He also expressed optimism about his players’ abilities.

“We came to this event with our match plan and experience has taught us to take the matches as they come. We are very happy for this victory, but we are more focused on the next match,” Oyede said.

“Without doubt, the victory was well deserved. But we still have some work to do as we were a bit careless in some areas and need to plug all the leakages going forward,” he said.

The Nigerians will take on Germany on Friday at the IPRC pitch.

In the other opening games of the tournament, host Rwanda lost to Uganda by 6 wickets while defending champion Kenya beat Botswana by 35 runs.