The third edition of the NCF Women’s T-20 International Invitational Tournament continued on Tuesday, with Nigeria Women’s Cricket National Team picking up their second straight win at the Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Oval in Lagos.
Leke Oyede’s ladies dispersed their Cameroonian counterparts by seven wickets, thanks to Favour Eseigbe’s brilliant performance, taking three wickets which earned her the player of the match award.
Cameroon won the toss and elected to bat first, with the duo of Madeline Laura Nseke and team captain Michelle Solange Ekani combining for 29 runs on 50 balls out of their total of 58 runs. Nseke had 15 runs for 26 balls, while Ekani finished with 14 runs for 24 balls in a fiercely contested match.
Vice-captain Eseigbe was the brightest of the bunch, dislodging the wicket three times to give Nigeria a well-deserved edge.
Nigeria started the second inning brightly, racing to 43 runs off the back of Salome Sunday’s 17 runs from 17 balls and Agatha Udiale’s eleven runs from eleven balls to cap off an impressive opening for the Female Yellow Greens.
Edwige Guehoada tried to bring the East Africans back into the tie as she took two wickets, but the Nigerians proved too strong for their opponents, as they continued their perfect start to the tournament following their opening day win over archrivals Sierra Leone on Monday.
Nigeria will take two rest days and will be in action next on Friday when they face fellow West Africans Ghana at 9:30 am WAT.
In the other game, Sierra Leone outclassed the Ghanaians by seven wickets to win their first game of the tournament.
Ghana won the coin toss and opted to bat first, but the Sierra Leone bowlers were a handful, dispatching five Ghanaian batswomen inside the first 25 minutes.
Celina Bull helped Sierra Leone with 18 runs from 14 balls, to go along with Isatu Koroma’s 12 runs from 21 balls, while Ghana’s Komalpreet Grewal had 19 runs from 34 balls.
Sierra Leone finished the game with 68 runs to Ghana’s 67 runs, and they will face defending champions Rwanda, who also defeated Ghana in their opening match, on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., while the Ghanaians will play Cameroon in the second game of the day at 1:30 pm.
