TheCable

The Nigerian male cricket team, Yellow-Greens, on Thursday, lost their first game to Kenya by four wickets at the ongoing International Cricket Council’s T20 men’s World Cup qualifier in Kigali, Rwanda.

Kenya had won the toss and chosen to field — which left Sylvester Okpe and his Nigerian teammates scampering for a 121 run in the first inning.

Danladi Isaac posted a decent 46 runs from 46 balls, while Prosper Useni posted 37 from 19 runs to secure the two best scores in the inning.

Kenya, however, resumed the second inning and kept at bay for their required 122 runs until the 19th over when Shem Ngoche hit Chiemelie Udekwe for a whopping 19 runs, cutting the required runs to 5 balls in the closing 20th, which they hit in 19.5.

Tayo Atoloye, leader of the Nigerian delegation to the event and representative of the south-west on the board of Nigeria Cricket Federation, said the loss was a painful one, especially as the Yellow-Greens were within victory range.

“The 19th was a critical over and we lost it to the experience and the superior strategy needed at the time. However, it is heartwarming that Nigeria’s bowling was great and we fielded better than any match we have played in recent times,” Atoloye said.

“Nigeria are obviously playing better than their ranking presently and this gladdens us and justifies our investments in the team.”

Nigeria will take on host Rwanda on Friday in a game that captain Okpe said is a must-win.

“We need our confidence to be boosted and having learnt useful lessons from the opening match, we will go all out to secure this win,” he said.