Nigeria’s Women National Cricket team, the Female “Yellow-Green” presently tops the leaderboard of the ongoing Kwibuka T20 Women Cricket Tournament hosted in Rwanda. They beat; the host, Rwanda, Botswana, and Kenya, in their first three matches at the tournament.
The Coach Leke Oyede tutored side brushed aside their host in their opening encounter on Saturday with a six-wicket victory at the Gahanga Cricket Stadium in Kigali. The host had left an 87-run inning for the Nigeria women to chase and got overwhelmed by the visitors as they wrapped up the game in 18.2 over with a spectacular show that earned Salome Sunday; the player of the match.
“I think the opening victory against the host, Rwanda, pumped up the girls’ confidence. Naturally, Nigeria and Rwanda’s encounters at this level have evolved into a friendly rivalry and, since we beat them to win the last tournament in April, in Lagos, I know we will need to work harder anytime we meet them again.” Oyede said after the opening Victory on Saturday.
On Sunday morning, the team beat Botswana by Six wickets (Botswana 97/6, Nigeria 98/4), before humbling the three-time winner of the title; Kenya later in the afternoon by three wickets.
Kenya batting first had set a target of 95/4 (20 overs) that set the team up for a hard-fought 98/7 (16.4 overs) to secure the needed 3-wicket victory, with 16-year-old Lucky Piety picking the player of the match for both Sunday games.
According to Oyede; “These wins put us on top of the leaderboard and unbeaten, ahead of our game on Monday morning encounter with Uganda, one of the top teams here, who are also unbeaten after two wins against Botswana and host Rwanda as well.”
The ongoing 9th Kwibuka Women’s T20 Tournament is featuring Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Botswana, and host Rwanda where the Gahanga and the Kicukiro Cricket Ovals in Kigali are playing host.
