The Vice President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), Oyewale Obalola has attributed Nigeria’s Yellow Greens Cricket male teams’ lost to Zimbabwe by 10 wickets on Wednesday March 20, 2024, to Isaac Danladi’s injury.
Zimbabwe’s Trevor Gwandu’s fierce bowling injured Danladi in the upper body and caused his unexpected retirement for medical attention.
Danladi’s bravery already gave Nigeria 15 runs off 9 balls before his injury, as Nigeria scored a very poor total of 88 runs.
Danladi was also missed in the second inning when Nigeria’s bowlers could not take any wicket from 2nd ranked Zimbabwe cricket team in Africa.
The result greatly reduced Nigeria’s qualification chances as Namibia qualified for the next stage with the same score with Nigeria but superior Net Runs Rate, (NRR).
Obalola, who is Ghana to lead the ream said that the margin of the loss was much, thereby denying the Yellow Green qualification to the next round.
“With the injury to Danladi, the players’ attention was switched especially when they saw Danladi being taken to the hospital. His injury was a source of worry and distractions in the game.
He said that the Run Rate (RR) formula was used to decide since three countries; Namibia, Tanzania and Nigeria won one game each.
“It was a tough group. We played against the best in the world. It was a good outing, better experience and encouraging performances from the Nigeria Male and Female teams”, he added.
Salome Sunday, who won the Player of the Match Award in the female competition had earlier led Nigeria to bronze medal finish in the Games.
