Nigeria U19 beat Tanzania to qualify for the U19 World Cup 2020

The Nigeria Under-19 cricket team played Tanzania Under-19 in an extremely crucial game, the second semi-final of the ICC Africa Division Two World Cup Qualifier. The winner of the match was to go through to the U19 World Cup 2020. The Nigerians beat Tanzania by 35 runs after being asked to bat first and with that sealed their spot for their maiden appearance in a mega tournament.

It was the Tanzanian captain who won the toss and decided to bat first. Nigeria didn’t get off to a good start as they lost early wickets and the in-coming batsmen were constantly under pressure. In the last half of the innings, things did seem to get back in control as Ifeanyi Uboh and Segun Ogundipe had a partnership worth 80 runs which helped the team post 169 on the board after batting 46.2 overs. It was Ogundipe who top-scored with his knock of 62 runs from 68.

Tanzania in their chase looked up to the task from the onset. But the team in Yellow Greens put up a great effort with the ball to stumble them. Despite a valiant effort from Gokul Das who scored 61 runs they were bowled out for 134 in the pursuit of 170 runs in 43.2 overs. The team failed to bat all the overs in their quota and thus fell short of the modest looking target.

For Nigeria, the best bowler was Peter Aho who took a four-wicket haul conceding just 37 runs. Ogundipe, for his half century that came in the winning cause, was awarded the Man of the Match award.

Division 1 cricket

Having won the semis Nigeria will now face off against Sierra Leone in the final to crown the champion of the Africa Division Two World Cup Qualifier.

On the back of their victory here, the Nigerian team will now play in Division 1 cricket. Vice President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), Uyi Akpata said, “Everybody associated with Cricket in Nigeria is very proud of the achievement of the boys… it was a tortuous journey but they have been very dedicated and disciplined and we look forward to them being the crux of the senior national team in the nearest future,” as quoted by The Guardian.ng.

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