Canada defeated Nigeria’s Senior National Male Team by 50 runs at the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates to go top of Group B.
The North American side after winning the toss elected to bat first with the quartet of Nitish Kumar top scoring with 57 runs off 36 balls to win the Player of the Match, Hamza Rafiq 33 runs off 16 balls while Rodrigo Thomas (18) and Captain Navneet Dhaliwal added 12 runs to post 159 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 20 overs.
Nigeria in the second innings had a rocky start with Daniel Ajekun and Oyede Leke opening batsmen both combining to score 2 runs courtesy of fire power bowling from Dillon Heyliger who eventually finished with 3 wickets for 16 runs in 4 overs.
Despite some fight back from former Captain Chimezie Onwuzulike who had 39 runs off 31 balls and Sulaimon Runsewe’s 27 runs it was not adequate as the “Yellow Greens” ended up on 109 runs.
The Ademola Onikoyi led side who are making their debut at this tournament after two matches are last in Group B with Canada, United Arab Emirates (Host) and Ireland topping in that order while Papa New Guinea, Netherlands and Scotland the top three teams in Group A.
The 2019 ICC T20 World Cup Cricket Qualifier currently holding at the United Arab Emirates from Saturday, October 18 to Saturday, November 2, 2019 is to determine which teams will qualify for the 2020 ICC T20 World Cup tournament in Australia.
Nigeria would be hoping to record her 1st win at the competition when they go to battle on Wednesday against Oman who are currently ranked fourth in Group B.
