Nigeria began their encounter at the 9th edition of the Kwibuka Women’s tournament with a resounding victory over arch rivals Rwanda. The host were looking forward to sliding one past Nigeria with their last defeat in Lagos during the NCF Women’s tournament still fresh in their minds.
Rwanda won the toss and elected to bat first sending in Nigeria to field. Gisele Ishimwe opened the bating as expected for Rwanda and was quickly off the mark with some impressive strokes but her partner Belise Murekatete could not follow suite and she lost her wicket early on to give Nigeria the much-desired start.
Opening bowling pair of Rukayat and Peculiar were proving too strong for Rwanda as they could only manage 25 runs after 6 overs of power play. Wickets fell consistently which allowed the Nigeria team to control proceedings for most of the innings. At the tail end of the innings, Adekunle Shola got 2 wickets to ensure Rwanda finished with 87 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 20 overs.
Gisele Ishimwe scored 30 runs off 39 balls as the best batting contribution for team Rwanda, supported by Umutoniwase Clarisse with 18 runs of 33 balls and finally Ishimwe Henriette with 13 runs off 16 balls.
Rwanda couldn’t have dreamt of a better start to the second innings when Nigeria lost 3 wickets in 3 overs with just 6 runs on the board which sent shivers to the bench and doubled the pressure on Salome Sunday and Lucky Piety who had so much work to do. The partnership of both ladies was unbelievable as they navigated till the end of 6 overs of power play where no further wicket was lost and Nigeria sat on 24 runs. Rwanda threw everything they had at the pair but to no effect as Salome and Piety raced away with the game.
The game was pretty much done and dusted when Piety fell on 26 runs off 31 balls and the team on 60 runs in 14.1 overs. The partnership of 54 runs at such crucial time is clear evidence of how much this team has matured and the hard work of the technical crew. Salome Sunday would go on to finish unbeaten wit 47 off 57 balls to see Nigeria across the finish line.
Nigeria completed a successfully run chase to record a total of 88 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 18.2 overs.
Muhawenimana Immaculate had the best bowling performance for Rwanda with 2 wickets, conceding 20 runs in 4 overs.
Salome Sunday was named Player of the match
*Nigeria won by 6 wickets*
Nigeria will play 2 games on match day 2 against Botswana at 9:45 am and Kenya at 1:45 PM.