Nigeria registered her fourth straight win at the on-going International Cricket Council’s T20 World Cup Sub-regional Africa Qualifier B in Kigali yesterday to brighten her qualification chances.
The Steve Tikolo tutored team, chalked twin-win over Eswatini and Gambia on Sunday to complement their earlier victories over Mozambique and their West African rival Sierra Leone, in their opening encounters.
Captain of the Nigerian side, Sylvester Okpe said his team is confident of qualification with their run so far in the first stage of the 2024 Cricket World Cup.
“We had a plan coming to this event and we are on course with it. Barring any major injury and distractions, I am very confident we will pick one of the two tickets here for the next stage.” He said.
In the win against Eswatini yesterday, the team set three new international records including the highest T20i score for Nigeria in any international game (221/7), the highest runs by a Nigerian batter in T20i ( Ashmit Shreshta: 76 runs in 49 balls) and fastest ever T20i half century for the country (Isaac Okpe: 53/17).
President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Uyi Akpata, said the Nigerian team is living up to the investment in them and he is confident the Senior national male team still has a lot to offer on the international stage.
“We are proud of the team’s performance so far and the pace at which they have conducted themselves so far has been very commendable especially improvements in the batting department, which we have been working on and can now see practical improvements.” He said.
Nigeria had beaten Mozambique by eight wickets and ran over Sierra Leone on Friday by six wickets. The record breaking victory over Eswatini was with 118 runs while the Gambia’s victory was with nine runs.
Nigeria’s next match will be on Monday December 5th against Cameroun, while Ghana and Tanzania encounters are set for Thursday December 8th and Friday December 9th respectively.
“This event is a feedback on the various levels of investment the Nigeria Cricket Federation has funnelled to the grassroots and infrastructures across the country. Nigeria has six standard pitches that has cut down on us needing to go for foreign Tours ahead of major events like this and with this we are encouraged that we are on the right path with our developmental agenda.” Akpata added.
