Nigeria senior women’s cricket team, the Female Yellow Greens, have qualified for the semi-finals in the cricket event of the 13th African Games in Ghana, pulling up a big shock among heavyweights in Group A, where they finished second with three points.
The Female Yellow Greens lost their last group game against the best team on the continent, South Africa, by four wickets on Sunday, but their three points from one win and a draw, as well as a superior net run rate of 0.778 was enough to see them through at the expense of Tanzania and Namibia.
Against the South Africans, captain Blessing Etim won the toss and elected to bat first but Nigeria were only able to muster 74 runs all out in 20 overs despite their seemingly strong start. South Africa reached the target with 31 balls remaining in the second innings, finishing with 78 runs for just six wickets in 14.5 overs.
In Nigeria’s first two matches, they settled for a draw against Tanzania before upsetting Namibia by 55 runs on Friday.
Leke Oyede’s ladies will now face Zimbabwe, who finished top of Group B in the second semi-finals on Monday by 2:50pm Nigerian time at the Achimota Cricket Oval.
Meanwhile, as a result of the Female Yellow Greens’ incredible run in the last three weeks, Nigeria have moved two places up in the latest International Cricket Council T20 rankings released on Sunday.
