TheCable

The female “Yellow-Greens” of Nigeria will launch their title chase for the 3rd Women’s T20i invitational tournament against Sierra Leone on March 27 at the Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Oval, Lagos.

The Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) announced the fixtures on Sunday.

Leke Oyede, coach of the “Yellow Greens”, said the players had been in camp for three weeks and were ready for competition.

“Most of my players are well-exposed and we have planned to win every match we enter at the event, irrespective of our opponent,” he said.

“I believe those matches will weigh in more on winning the event or not. So Nigerians should expect a more experienced team and an interesting encounter in all.”

Chuma Okereke, chairman of the local organising committee (LOC), expressed confidence that the Nigeria team would perform well at the event.

“A good tournament will be one that all teams have a good experience but I hope the Nigerian team win the tournament,” Okereke said.

“We want to build on the experience of last year. Beyond the action on the pitch, we have plans to make the March 30 rest day memorable and we are glad that some of our partners are supporting us to make this a key part of the tournament.”

Defending champion Rwanda will take on Ghana after Nigeria versus Sierra Leone duel.

Debutant Cameroon will face Nigeria on March 28 for their first match of the tournament while Ghana will square up with Sierra Leone for the second match of Day 2.

Nigeria’s matches against Ghana and Rwanda are scheduled for the second phase of the event on March 31 and April 1 respectively.

Rwanda and Nigeria are the two highest-ranked T20i teams, sitting on the log at 27th and 29th respectively while Sierra leone is 28th.

Ghana and Cameroon women’s national teams are currently not ranked by the International Cricket Council (ICC).