Sports
NCF Women T201: Nigeria Claims 41-Run Vctory Over Sierra Leone
A half-Century by Nigeria’s Salome Sunday was instrumental to Nigeria’s 41 run victory against West African rivals, Sierra Leone at the Access Bank Sponsored NCF Women’s T20i Invitational in Lagos.
Tidesports source reports that the match was the second match of the opening day of the five-nation event that bowled off at the newly renovated Tafawa Balewa Square.
Rwanda had earlier knocked Ghana’s Women Team to an 85 runs victory in the opening match at the event. The Nigeria Cricket Federation had conceived the tournament as part of the developmental drive for Women Cricket in the country.
Bookmakers had tipped Nigeria for victory over the visitors given the country’s level of female cricket development, as well as being ranked 37th by the International Cricket Council, seven places above Sierra Leone.
But it didn’t appear to be such an easy game for Nigeria.
The first over saw a fall of wicket in Piety Lucky and Kehinde Abdulquadri in the third over, sending a bit of anxiety to spectators.
Sunday replaced Abdulquadri, and a partnership with Blessing Etim, who in the eighth over saw the hosts leap in runs as they held on to finish the game at 131 runs for the loss of three wickets.
Sunday’s 50 runs not out was instrumental to the victory as she ended the game on 61 runs following 63 balls faced, including six boundary hits.
Etim, however, scored 31 runs in 29 balls.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.
