The Blessing Etim led Nigerian female cricket team on Tuesday crushed the Gambia female team with a record the small West African country will not want to remember.
The Gambia won the toss and decided to bat first, a mistake that Captain Faye Fatou will not forget about the Nigerian girls in a long time. The Gambia scored 20 runs all out in 10.1 overs. Nigerian bowlers were so clinical that 7 out the 10 wickets were dismissed through duck- when a player is dismissed without playing a run.
A quick check revealed this might go down in ICC T20 cricket as the world’s lowest score by a country. Turkey holds the record of 21 runs in 8.2 overs when the Czech Republic humbled them.
Another interesting record for Nigeria at TBS, Lagos is the fact that a 15-year-old debutant, Lillian Ude’s sterling bowling performance contributed to this amazing record for Nigeria. Lillian Ude was declared Player of the Match following her two maidens (bowl an over without a run scored by the opponent). She only received her International cap yesterday from skipper, Blessing Etim before the game with Sierra Leone.
So far the Nigerian girl’s improvement in their game attracted exciting commendations from cricket followers including the Sri Lankan World Cup-winning captain and Nigerian national coach, Asanka Gurusinha.
“The girls play and won easily and that’s how a good team trash a team that is not really good enough to compete at this level.
“The progress they have made in the last three weeks am very happy that today they play very well,” Coach Gurusinha observed.
Nigerian girls improvement is obvious and it is mostly believed that such tournament will discover more talented Nigerian cricketers.
While Lillian Ude shied at bowling, her teenage mate, Piety played not out with 14 runs. Piety is a batting sensation that would be lovely to watch if she partner with Salome Sunday.
Meanwhile, captain Blessing Etim had earlier promised that today’s match would be “100 percent better than yesterday” and indeed she proved the best captain yet for Nigerian Female Cricket team.
At the moment Sierra Leone are taking on Ghana at the TBS for the second match of the Day 2.
By Akanimo Kufre
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