Captain Blessing Etim’s Female Yellow Green cricket team on Monday lost by 49 runs to the 5th ICC-ranked team in Africa in the ongoing NCF Women’s T20i Tournament at TBS, Lagos.
Tanzania won the toss and batted first setting up a high target of 135 runs for the Nigerian girls to chase. Tanzanian batter, Saumu Godfrey was on 5 runs when she survived two dropped catches but went on to punish Nigeria by scoring 38 runs.
Tanzanian batters had a good day with an easy boundary score to make a total of 134 runs for a loss of 4 wickets in 20 overs (134/4).
The Nigerian girls went into the second inning chase with expectations of giving a good fight but lost early wickets. Top Nigerian batters like Favour Eseigbe, Esther Sandy, Piety Lucky, and Salome Sunday failed to perform maximally thereby exposing the weaker batters.
It was captain Blessing Etim and Sarah Etim’s batting partnership that took Nigeria’s poor runs tally from 43 to 80 runs. The Female Yellow Greens total was 85 for 8 wickets in 20 overs. (85/8).
Tanzanian Perice Zakayo won the Player of the Match award after contributing 30 runs and dismissing 4 players (wickets).
Nigeria Cricket Federation, (NCF) leadership had been glamouring for high valued games to improve the national team’s experience hence the invitation to top-ranked teams like Tanzania.
The second game of Monday favoured Rwanda who subdued Sierra Leone Lady Patriots by 10 wickets to top the table. It was one of the quickest cricket T20 games that led the tournament into
Tuesday’s match-free day.
