Cricket: Nigeria Wins 3rd NCF Women’s Tournament

Nigeria’s senior female cricket team, the Female Yellow Greens, have been crowned champions of the 2023 Nigeria Cricket Federation Women’s T20i tournament with a nine-run win over Rwanda in Lagos on Sunday.

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The Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Oval was soaked in tension as the top two sides in the tournament went up against each other in a repeat of last year’s final.

Meeting the reigning champions for the second time in two days, Nigeria had the mission of avenging their loss in last year’s final and also avoid a repeat of their defeat on match-day five.

Captain Blessing Etim won the toss for Nigeria and elected to batt first.

After a slow start to the game in the power play, Sunday Salome and captain Etim saw off the first innings with some incredible batting which saw Nigeria race to 99 runs for the loss of four wickets in 20 overs to the delight of spectators.

Rwanda started the second innings strongly but the Female Yellow Greens cut down their chase to 50 runs for the loss of two wickets after the 10th over, a half of the target for the Rwandans with 10 overs to go.

Nigeria stepped up to the plate again and got seven more wickets while also restricting Rwanda as much as possible.

In the end, Rwanda posted 90 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs.

For her incredible batting which saw Nigeria over the line in the first innings, Salome Sunday was awarded player of the match after scoring 48 runs.

Earlier, Seirra Leone defeated debutants Cameroon by nine wickets to finish third in the tournament.

Cameroon posted 84 runs all out in 17.2 overs while the Ladies Patriots chased down the score with 85 runs for the loss of one wicket in 13.2 overs.