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By: Abiodun Adewale.
Nigeria are back in contention for a place at the 2024 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh after beating arch rivals Rwanda by three runs at the ongoing qualifiers in Uganda on Tuesday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The Female Yellow Greens win was decided by the Duckworth Lewis method, after Nigeria’s innings was affected by the rain.
Coming from a loss in their previous Group B games, Nigeria and Rwanda rekindled their cricketing rivalry and both sides needed a victory to keep their semi-finals qualification hopes alive.
Captain Diane Bimenyimana won the toss for Rwanda and elected to bat first but the East African side struggled to get runs on the board as Nigeria displayed exceptional bowling albeit some misfielding.
Batting all-rounder and usual suspects Henriette Ishimwe and her sister Gisele were tamed for four runs from eight balls and three runs from eight balls respectively as Nigeria took control of the game and limited Leonard Nhamburo to 88 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs.
Peculiar Agboya was instrumental for Nigeria in the second innings with her bowling figures of taking three wickets for just 13 runs in four overs. Agboya also got 19 runs from 17 balls to win the Player of The Match award as Nigeria posted 49 runs for four wickets in 10.3 overs.
“Thanks to my teammates I was able to achieve this. Hopefully, we will continue to get better as we progress in the game,” she said.
Nigeria are now second in Group B with two points from two games and will face hosts Uganda on Thursday in the last group game. The top two teams in the group will make it to the semi-finals, while the finalists qualify for the World Cup.