By MICHAEL EGIETHUA
The second Quarter Final game of the ongoing International Cricket Council (ICC), Under 19 Men’s Cricket World Cup, Africa Division 2 Qualifier, held on Tuesday, 4th, September, 2022, at the NCF Cricket Oval, Moshood Abiola Stadium, Package ‘B’ in Abuja, between Nigeria and Sierra Leone, produced some of the most thrilling, exciting and tensioned soaked moments in the competition so far.
Nigeria won the toss and chose to bat first with Paul Pam and Salim Salau opening batting for the host country. Between the 2 opening batters, Nigeria posted 111 runs on the scoreboard with Pam playing 46 runs and Salau with the highest runs contributing 65 runs. This was the case until Nigerian Wickets began to fall rapidly and left the team struggling to post 184 runs for the loss of 10 wickets in 47.4 0vers.
Captain of the Sierra Leonean Side, John Bangura who came in as an opening batter, played through to the end of their inning, exhibiting his batting skills in keeping his wicket while attempting to outscore the Nigeria side.
This was the case and Bangura seemed poised to take his side to victory until the introduction of Prosper Useni as bowler for the Nigerian side. Prosper showed he had mastered the act of bowling Yokers as the Sierra Leonean batting side that was previously on top of its game started to crumble and wickets began to fall like a pack of cards.
According to Nigerian Veteran Cricketer and member of the technical team of the Nigerian Under 19 squad, Mr. Efe Dukuye, “Nigeria snatched victory from the jaws of defeat today”, as Prosper Useni stepped up to the challenge and put up a world class performance that saw him taking out SIX WICKETS in a stretch of bowling that caught the West African rivals napping.
At the fall of the Sierra Leanean 10th wicket in the 48th over, they were able to put up 173 runs with Bangura playing 89 Runs, Not Out.
PROSPER USENI was Man of the Match.
Nigeria is through to the Semi-finals and will be meeting Malawi, while the second Semi Final game is between Kenya and Sierra Leone on Friday, 7th of October, 2022 at the NCF Ovals.
Also during an interlude in the game, and as part of the quest by the Nigerian Cricket Federation (NCF) to continue the development strides of the game across all sectors in the county, the Vice President of Nigeria Cricket Federation, Mr. Wale Obalola presented a starter pack kit to the representatives of the Nigeria Army Physical Training team led by Lt. E. E. Monday from the Muhammadu Buhari Cantonment, Girri, Abuja.
