TheCable

The Nigerian women’s cricket team, Female Yellow-Greens, on Sunday, lost for the first time in the ongoing 8th Kwibuka women’s T20 international tournament to Uganda by nine wickets.

The loss cut the Nigerian team’s statistics to three wins in four matches and made them second on the overall table.

Reacting to the defeat, Leke Oyede, Nigeria’s coach, said all the games played so far were a learning curve for his team.

“We have learnt from the wins and also from our loss to Uganda. I believe this will give us more things to work on as we prepare for other matches,” Oyede said.

“I am very proud of the players as they have made my work and my assistant a lot easier.”

Nigeria’s campaign at the tournament has been impressive with convincing wins against Brazil, Germany and Botswana to top the table before Sunday’s loss to Uganda.

Monday is a rest day while Nigeria is due to meet Kenya on Tuesday at the Gahanga Stadium where they beat Germany on Friday.

“I will not make promises. I know we would have gotten enough rest and analysed our chances against the Kenyans before we face them,” the coach added.

On his part, Uyi Akpata, president of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, said the Female Yellow-Greens deserve lots of supports and accolades.

“We have seen them improve tremendously from the last outing at the NCF Women’s T20 Invitational in Lagos and I believe the least they deserve is our support. It doesn’t really matter much how it turns out. It is a very good thing to have beaten two big teams that are ranked over us by the International Cricket Council,” Akpata said.

In other matches played on Sunday, host Rwanda got its second win of the tournament, beating Germany.

They had earlier lost to Uganda and Kenya after beating Brazil.

The Rwandans will hope to improve on their chances at the trophy on Tuesday when they take on Tanzania at the IPRC Pitch. Tanzania has played only three matches against Botswana, Uganda, and Kenya, winning all to top the table ahead of Nigeria.

Nigeria will take on Tanzania on Wednesday and will finish off the round-robin stage with a tie against perennial rival Rwanda on Thursday at the IPRC Oval.