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African Games: Nigeria Suffer Defeat Against Zimbabwe, Eye Cricket Bronze

Published

9 months ago

Mar 12, 2024.

Eko Hot Blog reports that The Female Yellow Greens are determined to make a strong comeback, vying for the bronze medal in the women’s cricket event at the ongoing African Games in Ghana. They will face Uganda in the third-place match at the Achimota Cricket Oval on Wednesday.

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On Monday, Nigeria narrowly fell short in the second semi-finals cricket of the African Games, losing by five wickets in a closely contested match against the test nation Zimbabwe.

Captain Blessing Etim won the toss and chose to bat against the 13th-ranked nation globally. However, the first innings didn’t go well, with Nigeria being restricted to 74 runs, losing nine wickets in 20 overs.

Zimbabwe achieved the target in 16 overs, thanks to outstanding performances by Peculiar Agboya, Christabel Chukwuonye, and Shola Adekunle, who collectively took five wickets.

“A big congratulations to the ladies, I am so proud of them and we will do more next time. No time to rest, we will go back to training immediately to correct some errors in our batting, then we come stronger to play Uganda on Wednesday,” captain Etim said after the game.

Zimbabwe captain, Mary-Anne Musonda also admired coach Leke Oyede’s ladies fighting spirit.

“I’ll say every one of them were fantastic because if they hit one run, they are really cheering one another and I think even with their age, they have a bright future and their team chemistry is really impressive.”

Uganda, Nigeria’s third-place match adversary, holds the 18th position globally and suffered a 50-run defeat to South Africa in the alternate semi-finals.

Nigeria, currently ranked 27th, holds the lowest position among the teams debuting at this year’s Games. Despite the initial challenges, they’ve made significant progress by securing the second spot in Group A, which included strong teams like South Africa, Namibia, and Tanzania, bringing them closer to the podium.