The Nigeria U-19 Cricket Team has gained promotion into the International Cricket Council (ICC) U-19 Division1 after emerging winner of the ICC U-19 World Cup qualifier, division 2.
The qualifier ended on Tuesday in South Africa with Nigeria now qualified for the ICC World Cup 2020 event.
The Nigeria side defeated Sierra Leone with a 137 runs victory in the much anticipated final to lift the trophy.
The opening partnership of 148 runs between Elijah Olaleye and Samuel Mba gave Nigeria a dream start in the finals.
However, Olaleye’s brilliant display of bating prowess hits 110 runs of 124 balls strongly supported by Mba with 64 runs of 124 balls.
As the match progressed, there was a brief scare with three quick wickets before the team came through to record a total score of 242 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 50 overs.
Nigeria’s Peter Aho, in the second innings, continued his fine bowling form with a brilliant spell of five wickets making it his second five wickets haul in the tournament.
The Nigeria team recorded a win in all their matches played, defeating Ghana, Mozambique, Lesotho, Tanzania and finally Sierra Leone.
Nigeria will compete alongside Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania in the ICC U-19 Division 1 slated for March 2019.
…as women team wins bilateral series
Nigeria’s national female cricket team on Tuesday in Abuja also won the bilateral international cricket series against Rwanda with a 3-2 victory.
In the five-match event, Nigeria claimed victory in the first three games, with their visitors staging a comeback in the last two at the event held at the Abuja National Stadium.
The result means Nigeria would be placed ahead of the East African side in subsequent International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings as the series is a ranking event.
After the event, Yahaya Ukwenya, President of Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), said the country had achieved its aim through the series.
“We have achieved our objectives on all counts. We wanted to foster a relationship with Rwanda for a number of reasons.
“One of it is that they have one of the best facilities in Africa, though they are a developing cricket country like us, and that tells you why the contest have been very close.
“Secondly, we wanted to test our girls, give them the opportunity to play as a team and evaluate our strengths and weaknesses,” he said.
On his part, coach of the Rwandan side, Joshua Mwanja, said the team has taken lots of positives from the game.
“It was a learning process for us and we have definitely seen our errors and we hope to work on them before the ICC World Qualifiers in May,” he said.
The four-day tournament, which began on Saturday ended on Tuesday, with the return leg scheduled for June in Kigali.
