Nigeria Female Yellow Greens proved again they are best at scaling the hurdle set by their cricket opponents as they defeated arc-rival Rwanda by 5 wickets.
Captain Blessing Etim won the toss and chose to field leaving Marie Diane’s Rwanda team to bat first.
A slight miss-fielding in the first over gave Nigeria a shaky start. However, the girls picked up form almost immediately when teenage star, Shola Adekunle sparked a deadly bowling squad against Rwanda.
16 years old Shola took 4 wickets with precision, and Peculiar Agboya and Favour Eseigbe grabbed 3 and 2 wickets respectively. The shock kept Rwanda’s total runs at 95 and lost 9 wickets in 20 overs (95/9).
The second-inning chase for Nigeria started on a good note when Assistant Captain Favour Eseigbe and Esther Sandy soaked the pressure poured out in revenge by Rwanda. Favour and Esther’s partnership gave Nigeria 58 runs. A safe haven was created before Esther’s wicket fell.
However, Rwanda saw an opportunity to tighten the screw and soon pressure shifted to Nigeria with 4 successive falls of wickets.
Nigeria’s nerve was put to the test when the game got to its twilight with a tie. One run was needed to win in the 19th over. It was on Salome Sunday’s shoulder to deliver and she finished in style with four runs.
Nigeria scored 99/5 to secure a second win of the tournament against Rwanda and little Shola Adekunle walked away with a N150,000 prize for the Player of the Match award.
