How Nigeria Defeated Rwanda To Win W’Africa Cricket Tourney

Nigeria has won the second edition of the West Africa Trophy Cricket tournament in Abuja.

Nigeria’s senior men’s team, also known as the Yellow Greens, defeated Rwanda by 40 runs to lift the trophy for the second time at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.

Nigeria won the toss and opted to bat first, with each of the batters contributing significantly to the 157 runs scored by the hosts.

The home team made good use of the power play (first six overs), scoring 30 for no wickets lost after three overs.

The 30-run partnership between captain Sulaimon Runsewe and Rahmon Ali was broken in the fourth over after Ali was bowled out by Igance Ntirenganya of Rwanda.

Ali, who departed after scoring 11 runs off 10 balls, was replaced by Selim Salau.

Salau’s 25 runs off 25 balls pushed Nigeria to 93 before he fell to the excellent bowling of Muhammad Nadir, with the ball piercing through the middle stump.

The middle order batters also complemented the openers, as Isaac Danladi, Vincent Adewoye and Sylvester Okpe ensured the current run-rate was 7.85 an over.

Nigeria scored 157/5 in their allotted 20 overs.

In the chase, Rwanda started well, with a 50-run partnership of opening batters Khan Hamza and Didier Ndikubwima helping to build momentum for the visitors.

However, just after the power play, Hamza lost his wicket, and the momentum dipped for Rwanda as they required five more overs to score 20 more runs on the board.

Efforts by fellow opener Ndikubwima, 33 of 38 balls, supported by Jean Iradukunda’s 25 off 23, who played not out, were not enough to save the day.

No thanks to the bowling prowess of the Nigerian side spearheaded by Issac Okpe, Joshua Asia and Elochukwu Ndudubem with two wickets each in their four-over spell, respectively.

They restricted the East Africans to 117/9 in 20 overs. Nigeria won by 40 runs.

Earlier in the tournament, each team played nine games, with Nigeria winning eight of those and losing just one to Rwanda, while the latter won six games, losing twice to Nigeria and once to Zambia.

Notably, some individual performances were recognised as Nigeria’s Danladi was awarded Best Batter of the tournament, scoring 324 runs, while Rwanda’s Muhammad Nadir emerged as the Best Bowler with 15 wickets.

Nigeria’s Isaac Okpe and Rwanda’s Emile Rukiriza closed in second and third place with the same number of wickets, but Nadir had a better economy than the duo.

Nigeria’s captain, Runsewe, received the Best Fielder honours with 11 dismissals in 10 games, while Zambia’s Zoyeb Chand was recognised as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.