Cricket: Nigeria Wins Cameroon At Women’s Invitational Tournament
Nigeria won its second game at the ongoing Nigeria Cricket Federation’s (NCF) Women’s T-20 International Invitational tournament, beating Cameroon by seven wickets on Tuesday, at the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval in Lagos.
Cameroon, who were making their debut at the event, won the toss and opted to bat. They went on to score 58, all out in 20 overs, relying on Madeleine Nseke 15(26) and team captain Michele Ekani 14(24) to shore up runs on the board.
However, vice-captain of the Nigerian side, Favour Eseigbe, did the damage against the opponents with 3/4 in 3 overs.
Nigeria came in to chase in the second innings, needing only 7.4 overs to beat the target. Salome Sunday 17(17) helped Nigeria reach 60 runs for the loss of three in 7.4 overs, to win by seven wickets.
Nigeria records second victory in the #NigeriaWT20i tournament against Cameroon 👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/lDlV12kvI3
— Nigeria Invitational 2023 (@NigeriaWT20I) March 28, 2023
After the game, Blessing Etim, captain of the Nigerian team, said the team had to use its spinners to weaken the strength of their opponents.
“We observed the batters, they were flashing the bats at us. So, we brought in the spinners because they are a little bit slow,” Etim said.
”And even if the batters are flashing their bat at the ball, it will not move as fast as it ought to when the fast bowlers are bowling,” Etim added. So, the spinners did a lot of work and that is why we could limit them to that low total they scored.”
On her part, Cameroon’s Ekani lauded her team’s efforts, adding that they would come up stronger in their subsequent games.
“This is just our first game and we played against a big side like Nigeria,” Ekani said. “Although we made some errors that we look to correct but I appreciate the efforts of my team in showing the world that we play good cricket in Cameroon.”
Nigeria’s Eseigbe emerged Player of the Match for her outstanding bowling statistics in the encounter.
