Cricket: Nigeria Tops West Africa Trophy with Two Games to End

Nigeria’s senior male cricket team, the Yellow-Greens, are sitting comfortably atop the leaderboard of the ongoing West Africa Cup at the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval in Lagos, with eight wins and two matches to spare. 

Rwanda, Ghana, and Sierra Leone are following respectively, in the four-nation tournament sponsored by Dafabet in conjunction with the Nigeria Cricket Federation.

Nigeria’s eight wins included three victories apiece against Ghana and Sierra Leone, and two off Rwandan national team.

Currently, Nigeria’s Suleiman Runsewe leads the batters chart, with 208 runs on the log, from the eight games played so far. The high-points, being; 80 runs from 62 balls in the encounter with Ghana on Tuesday and 79 runs he had from 55 balls against Sierra Leone penultimate Thursday.

Rwandan, Hamza Khan follows with 177 runs too, from eight matches, while Nigerian Ajekun Daniel sits in the third spot with 160 runs.

Nigeria’s right-hand medium bowler, Isaac Okpe, is leading the bowling chart with 16 wickets from eight matches played, two ahead of Emmanuel Sebareme and Martin Akayezu who are tied at 14 wickets a piece from eight matches. Nigeria’s Cheimelie Udekwe is lurking behind in fourth place, with 13 wickets haul.

President of the Nigeria’s Cricket Federation, Uyi Akpata, yesterday described the event as a demonstration of the progress that is being attained in the associate countries and the West African sub-region especially.

“There are gains we are recording in the sub-region. We may not be where we want, but cricket, is growing infrastructurally, and a lot of developmental efforts are ongoing. This is affecting the quality of the game. The West Africa Cup is a platform that we have used to rally those gains,” observed the NCF boss.

Today, Friday, October 13 has been designated rest day, while the final two games have been set for tomorrow and Sunday.