Nigeria’s Senior Women’s Cricket team, playing in the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup qualifiers in Botswana, on Saturday lost their third group B game to Uganda.
Nigeria lost by 43 runs to their East African rivals at the Botswana Cricket Association oval, in Gaborone, after Uganda elected to bat by winning the toss.
The fielding prowess of the Nigerian team, limited Uganda to 104 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs.
A very confident Nigerian side went in to chase in the second innings with the opening partnership of Esther Sandy and Kehinde Abdulquadri scoring 20 runs in four overs.
The fall of both wickets in the fifth and eighth overs respectively began Nigeria’s woes, especially after Captain Blessing Etim and Salome Sunday were both `run out’ in the eighth over and more wickets fell after that.
Omonye Asika, who struggled to hold on, scoring 13 runs in 12 balls, was run out in 9.2 overs as Joy Efosa followed immediately after being bowled out with the next ball and so did the rest of the team.
The Female Yellow Greens managed to score 61 runs, all out in 14.5 overs.
After the game, team coach Onome Oghenekevwe said he believed his team was the better side, but were unlucky.
“Today’s game was tough. We started well and held the Ugandans down in the first inning.
“We started well in the second innings. We were 20 runs in the first four overs, but from the sixth over, we lost grip of the game and had five `run outs’.
“Those run out were our key players and we just gave away the game. I believe that we are the better side, but events didn’t work out in our favour today,’’ he said.
Nigeria will face Cameroon in her last group B game on Monday. The team had defeated Sierra Leone and lost against Namibia earlier.
Meanwhile, Group A comprises host Botswana, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Only one team is expected to qualify from the 11-nation tournament expected to end on September 19.
