Cricket: Nigeria Succumbs to Uganda, to Battle Kenya on Tuesday

Nigeria’s cricket team, Female Yellow-Green, lost for the first time in the ongoing 8th Kwibuka Women’s T20 Tournament on Sunday to Uganda by 9 wickets, to cut their statistics to three wins in four matches and second on the overall table.

Nigeria’s Coach, Leke Oyede said that all the matches have been learning curves for the team. “We have learnt from the wins and also from our loss today to Uganda. This I believe gives us more things to work on as we prepare for other matches.”

Oyede said the players have been very welcoming of instructions and they are the real winners. “I am very proud of them. They have made my work and my assistant’s Theophilus a lot easier,” he added.

Nigeria’s campaign at the Kwibuka T20 tournament has been impressive with convincing wins against Brazil, Germany and Botswana to top the table before Sunday’sloss to Uganda.

Monday, June 13is a rest day with hostilities to resume on Tuesday versus Kenya at the Gahanga Stadium where they beat Germany on Friday 

“I will not make promises. I know we would have gotten enough rest and analysed our chances against them before the time,” stressed Coach Oyede.

The President of the Federation, Uyi Akpata, also said that he believes the girls need a visible show of support now than ever at this time. 

“We have seen them improve tremendously from the last outing at the NCF Women’s T20 Invitational in Lagos and I believe the least they deserve is our support,” observed the NCF boss.

In other matches played on Sunday, host Rwanda got their second win of the tournament by beating Germany having lost to Uganda and Kenya earlier in the tournament. Their first win was against Brazil. 

They will be looking to better their chances at the trophy on Tuesday when they take on Tanzania Women at the IPRC Pitch. Tanzania on the other side has only played three matches and won all (Botswana, Uganda, and Kenya), to top the table ahead of Nigeria.

Nigeria will take on Tanzania on Wednesday and will finish off the round-robin stage with a tie against their perennial rival and hosts Rwanda on Thursday at the IPRC Oval.

Akpata added that “It doesn’t really matter much how it turns out, we are very pleased with the development of the players. It is a very good thing to have beaten two big teams that are ranked over us by the International Cricket Council. But then, given what we have seen so far, I am confident the girls still have some surprises up their sleeves and we will give them all the support they need.”