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By Akanimo Kufre
It was a moody moment for the female Yellow Greens of Nigeria as they were humbled by host, Uganda in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup qualification match at Entebbe Cricket Oval on Thursday.
The Nigeria female cricket team lost by 6 wickets to top-ranked Ugandan ladies and recorded very dismal results so far in their history.
Uganda won the toss and fielded first against Nigeria’s batters who could not score their runs probably because of Ugandan tactful bowlers. It was Nigeria captain, Blessing Etim and Salome Sunday who were able to play double-digit scores of 24 and 10 runs respectively. Nigeria played a total of 63 runs and lost 9 wickets in 20 overs.
Ugandan captain, Concy Aweko, and teammates Evelyn Anyipo, and Sarah Akiteng all took Nigerian wickets to ensure that their chase in the second inning was easier.
The second inning was nevertheless a simple task for Uganda who scored 66 runs and lost only 4 wickets at 15th over.
Nigeria’s’ hope of playing at the Cricket World Cup slipped for the second time largely due to the team’s inability to demonstrate good cricket batting prowess.
However, the girls’ performance will improve their next ICC ranking as they were able to defeat two teams who were above them in ranking.
The four teams to play in the semifinals are Zimbabwe (6 pts), Uganda (6pts), Tanzanian (4pts), and Namibia (4pts). Namibia qualified for the semifinal after beating Rwanda by 11 runs earlier on Thursday.
Nigerian girls dropped to 5th place with 2 points after their loss to Uganda. They were however better than Kenya, Rwanda, and Botswana on the points table.
Coach Joe Oche, Nigeria Cricket Federation, (NCF) National Development Manager (North), on Wednesday, was optimistic about the girl’s victory against Uganda. His convictions were based on the female Yellow Green’s fighting spirit against Namibia and Rwanda in previous matches of the qualification series.
