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By: Abiodun Adewale
Nigeria senior women’s cricket team, the Female Yellow Greens, faceoff with Tanzania for the third time in two weeks on Thursday (today), as the cricket event of the 13th African Games in Ghana gets underway at the Achimota Cricket Ovals, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Cricket is being played at the African Games for the first time since the continental showpiece started in 1965 and Nigeria will get the honours of playing in one of the two simultaneous opening games. The other game is between heavyweights South Africa and Namibia.
Nigeria and Tanzania met twice at the just-concluded Nigeria Cricket Federation Women’s T20i invitational tournament, which was won by the East Africans in Lagos last Sunday.
Tanzania won both games, handing the Female Yellow Greens a 49-run defeat in their first game before defeating them by another 65 runs win.
Ahead of their historic meeting in Ghana, the Female Yellow Greens are poised not to leave anything to chance despite sitting 11 places below the East Africans in the ICC rankings.
“The way we played them in Lagos was unusual to us, we dropped a couple of catches, and, you know, we went back to the drawing board to see what was wrong and how we could come back stronger. It was something we discussed a lot, knowing that we will play them again in Ghana,” captain Blessing Etim told our correspondent.
“We had a well-prepared tournament to move to the African Games, so I believe we are going to move from there. I think we have learned never to give up and to play until the last ball,” she added.
Head coach of the team, Leke Oyede, also expressed confidence in the capacity of his players.
“In Lagos, we played 40 per cent of our capacity because most of our players assembled one week to that tournament after sitting for exams in schools,” Oyede said.
“Over the years, our capacity has grown that, even with the best teams, we are now catching up with them. And we have beaten Tanzania before, so the next game won’t be an easy one for them. They have beaten us twice but we have shown that we have players who can beat them.”
After facing Tanzania, Nigeria will square up against Namibia on Friday before facing South Africa in the last group game on Sunday.
