Nigeria emerged victorious in the third edition of the Nigeria Cricket Federation Women’s T20 International Invitational as they defeated Rwanda in the final match on Sunday.
The Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Oval in Lagos played host to the five-nation competition as it came to a thrilling conclusion on Sunday, with the Female Yellow Greens overcoming defending champions Rwanda by nine runs with a score of 99-90 to emerge as champions of the third edition of the tournament.
Nigeria’s captain, Blessing Etim, who sat out Saturday’s encounter between both countries, won the toss at the start of the game, and the home side opted to bat first.
The Female Yellow Greens started the game slowly, with two of their batswomen getting run out early in the tie, and they only combined for 13 runs.
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However, they steadied themselves as more experienced members of Leke Oyede’s team came into the fold towards the end of the first innings, a plan that seemed to be the game changer for the Nigerians later in the tie.
The trio of Lucky Piety, Salome Sunday and Etim worked their respective magic, limiting the East Africans to four wickets as opposed to the ten they took a day before.
Sunday was two runs shy of a half century, as she finished with 48 runs for 58 balls, taking two wickets, and eventually winning the Player of the Match award.
Young batting sensation Piety had 11 runs for 17 balls and took three wickets to crown an impressive tournament.
Rwanda began their chase in the second innings strongly, rushing to over 30 runs in just about five overs, which raised questions about a comeback win.
Albeit the disappointing start, Leke Oyede’s ladies showed versatility and resilience, switching from pace bowlers to spin bowlers, a trick that clearly shook higher-ranked Rwandans.
Nigeria sent out three of the East African batswomen in quick succession to end the game with nine wickets.
Rwanda’s Gisele Ishimwe finished with 31 runs from 48 balls for Rwanda, while captain Bimenyimana Marie had 15 runs from 19 balls.
The victory was historic for Nigeria as they finally saw off their archrivals after many tries, to win the T20 invitational for the first time.
Earlier in the day, Sierra Leone defeated Cameroon by nine wickets to claim third place in a repeat of their final game in the round-robin stage.
