A Half-Century by Nigeria’s Salome Sunday was instrumental in Nigeria’s 41-race win against West African rivals Sierra Leone in the NCF Women’s T20i Invitational sponsored by Access Bank in Lagos.
The match was the second match on the opening day of the five-nation event that was played in the newly renovated Tafawa Balewa Square.
Rwanda had previously defeated the Ghanaian women’s team with an 85-run victory in the opening match of the event. The Nigerian Cricket Federation had conceived the tournament as part of the campaign to develop Women’s Cricket in the country.
Bookmakers had tipped Nigeria for victory over the visitors given the country’s level of development in women’s cricket, as well as being ranked 37th by the International Cricket Council, seven places above Sierra Leone.
But it didn’t seem to be such an easy match for Nigeria.
The first over saw a wicket drop on Piety Lucky and Kehinde Abdulquadri in the third, sending some anxiety into the spectators.
On Sunday he replaced Abdulquadri, and a partnership with Blessing Etim, who in the eighth over saw the hosts jump in runs as they held on to finish the game on 131 runs for the loss of three wickets.
Sunday’s 50 uneliminated runs were instrumental in the victory as he finished the game with 61 runs after 63 contested balls, including six limit shots.
Etim, however, scored 31 runs on 29 balls.
Meanwhile, the second innings saw the Sierra Leone team with a low run rate in the first 10 overs, but the team recovered some good form in the latter part of the innings to finish the game on 90 runs for the loss of six. grounds.
The first match of the day, however, saw Ghana lose by 81 runs to high-flying Rwanda.
It is the first time both teams have met in a cricket event, but the 31st ranked East African team showed why they are ranked in the ICC table compared to their unranked counterpart.
Hostilities continue today with Nigeria taking on Gambia while Ghana clashes with Sierra Leone.