…Nail biting finale sees Rwanda snatch victory from South Africa Women U-19 by 5 runs
…Rwanda Women match on with 3 wins from 3 games
Day 3: Match 5
Nigeria vs Ghana
Nigeria won the toss and elected to bat. Captain Piety Luck and Victory Igbinedion opened the batting as they have done thus far in this tournament, quickly racing to 44 runs after 3 overs with Piety contributing 18 and Victory 15 runs respectively. Ghana got the breakthrough when Piety was bowled for 23 runs off 17 balls in the 6th over with Nigeria on 50 runs. At the end of the batting power play overs, Nigeria had 56 runs on the board for the loss of 1 wicket.
Midway into the innings Nigeria were on 78 runs still for the loss of 1 wicket as Amusa Kehinde came in to provide the required stability. Victory Igbinedion was retired hurt on 18 runs off 27 balls to introduce Salome Sunday who had a brief spell and was dismissed with just 8 runs off 5 deliveries.
Ghana continued to pile the pressure but Nigeria kept the board ticking with efforts from Christabel Chukwuonye who finished with a brilliant 43 runs off 27 balls.
Nigeria finished with 159 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in their allotted 20 overs.
In the second innings, Nigeria approached their runs defense with precision and purpose as Ghana struggled to settle into the game. in 6.5 overs, Ghana were down 5 wickets with just 13 runs on the board, much to the frustration of their dugout and the excitement of the Nigeria bench. Ghana offered no further resistance as wickets fell every other, leaving them on 20 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 9.2 overs.
Peace Usen led from the front yet again with 3 wickets, conceding 9 runs, 1 maiden in 4 overs, supported by Mbam Henrietta with 3 wickets, conceding 7 runs in 1.4 overs and Favour Effiong with 2 wickets, conceding 2 runs in 2 overs.
Peace Usen was named player of the match.
Nigeria won by 136 runs
Day 3: Match 6
Rwanda vs South Africa
Rwanda won the toss and elected to bat first, both teams with a win under their belt guaranteed the fixtures encounter to be both exciting and captivating. The usual suspects of Gisele Ishimwe and Fanny Utagushimaninde exploded with boundaries in the first over but the onslaught was halted very quickly by Ashley Van Wyk, when Gisele was dismissed.
Captain Marie Diane Bimeyinmana lasted just 5 balls before being wrapped LBW to put South Africa Women’s U-19 on the front burner. Fanny continued her impressive batting by leading Rwanda to 38 runs by the end of 6 overs of batting power play. Threats on lightning delayed the game which led to a revised 14 overs per side.
The game resumed soon with South Africa Women U-19 striking first to dismiss the 3rd batter on 47 runs in 7.2 overs. Rwanda accelerated their strike to finish with 101 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in their revised 14 overs.
Clarisse Umotoniwase led the charge with 26 runs off 21 balls, supported by fanny with 24 runs off 25 balls and finally Uwase Merveille with 17 runs off 10 balls.
South Africa U-19 responded well in their run chase by scoring the required total of 7.5 runs per over in the first 5 overs, Rwanda fought back with 3 quick wickets to slow down the momentum before taking full control of the game. South Africa hit a couple of boundaries to reverse the story as they clawed back to 90 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 12 overs. Captain Mieke Van Voorst played a captain’s innings to hit 34 runs off 27 balls to put the game on the balance.
South Africa Required 11 runs from the last over and anxiety grew as they registered no runs off the first 2 balls. Rwanda held their nerves to hang on as they restricted South Africa Women’s U-19 to 100 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 14 overs.
Alice Ikuzwe was named player of the match
Rwanda won by 5 runs
