After two victories at the ongoing Eight Kwibuka Women’s T20 Tournament, Nigeria’s women’s national team, Women Yellow-Greens, stumbled yesterday, losing by nine wickets to Uganda. With the loss, Nigeria remains on three wins in four matches and stand second on the overall table.
Nigeria’s Coach, Leke Oyede, described the matches as learning points for the team, adding, “We have learnt from the wins and also from our loss today to Uganda.
“This, I believe, gives us more things to work on as we prepare for other matches.”
Oyede said the players have been very receptive of instructions and are the real winners. “I am very proud of them. They have made my work and my assistant, Theophilus’ work a lot easier,” he added.
Nigeria’s campaign at the Kwibuka T20 tournament has been impressive with convincing wins against Brazil, Germany and Botswana to top the table before yesterday’s loss to Uganda.
Today is a rest day, but hostilities will resume tomorrow when the women battle with Kenya at the Gahanga Stadium where they beat Germany on Friday.
“I will not make promises. I know we would have gotten enough rest and analysed our chances against them before the time,” said Oyede.
Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) President, Uyi Akpata, also said he believes the team needs a visible show of support now than ever at this time.
“We have seen them improve tremendously from the last outing at the NCF Women’s T20 Invitational in Lagos and I believe the least they deserve is our support.”
In other matches played yesterday, hosts, Rwanda, got their second win of the tournament by beating Germany, having lost to Uganda and Kenya, earlier in the tournament. Their first win was against Brazil.
They will be looking to better their chances at the trophy tomorrow when they take on Tanzania at the IPRC Pitch. Tanzania, on the other hand, has only played three matches and won all (Botswana, Uganda, and Kenya), to top the table ahead of Nigeria.
Nigeria will take on Tanzania on Wednesday and finish off the round-robin stage with a tie against their perennial rivals and hosts, Rwanda, on Thursday at the IPRC Oval.
Speaking on the game against Rwanda, Akpata said: “It doesn’t really matter much how it turns out, we are very pleased with the development of the players.” It is a very good thing to have beaten two big teams that are ranked over us by the International Cricket Council. But then, given what we have seen so far, I am confident the girls still have some surprises up their sleeves and we will give them all the support they need.”
