The Nigerian Cricket team at the on-going ICC-Africa World Cricket League(WCL)
Division 2 taking place in Benoni, South Africa lost gallantly to tournament favourites,
Botswana by 5 wickets in a tension-soaked match.
Batting first, the Nigerian team negotiated once more an early order batting collapse
floundering at 43 runs for the loss of 5 wickets after 18 overs. However once
more the team showed its strength in depth and recovered to post a reasonable score
of 205 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in its 50 overs.
The lower order batsmen all chipped in valuable runs to enable the recovery with Uthe
Ogbimi(15), Wale Adeoye (13), Jide Bejide (29), Joshua Ogunlola (23) and top-scorer
Tope Olayinka with an unbeaten 48 runs!
Considering that Botswana had bowled out both its earlier opponents Swaziland and Ghana
for 69 runs each, the Nigerian boys showed character in ekeing out 205 runs from the
Botswanian team. It represented the third time in consecutive matches that the Nigerians
posted a score in excess of 200 runs and the third time they played out their 50-overs.
In reply, Botswana set out for the run-chase quite early with a high run-rate at 72 runs
for the loss of 2 wickets after 13 overs, progressing to 149 for the loss of 4 after 33 overs
before achieving victory in the 44th over with a score of 206 for the loss of 5 wickets.
Skipper Wale Adeoye's economy rate stood out as he completed his 10 overs for just 25
runs capturing one Botswanian wicket to the bargain; while Kunle Adegbola bowled his
10 overs for 51 runs taking 2 wickets. Finally Endurance Ofem also took 2 wickets for 33
runs in his eight overs.
Tomorrow is rest day in the tournament and play resumes on Wednesday with Nigeria
engaging in a must-win match against Mozambique; while Zambia takes on Botswana;
the match between Ghana and Swaziland completes the fixture.
As at the end of today's play, Botswana leads the table with 6 points having won its three
matches while Nigeria, Mozambique and Zambia are locked on 4 points each after each
losing a match; whilst Ghana and Swaziland are yet to record any victory and have no
point yet.
