By Ijeoma Okigbo
Nigeria’s Junior Yellow Greens on Thursday defeated Mozambique by 407 runs in their fourth match of the ongoing International Cricket Council (ICC) U-19 World Cup qualifier in Kigali, Rwanda.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria won the toss and elected to bat at the IPRC Kigali College Oval, where the team produced its best batting performance of the tournament.
Captain Rahmon Ali and opening partner Hossana Omonkhobio provided a solid start, with Ali scoring 41 runs off 46 balls before he was dismissed in the 15th over.
Nigeria had posted 89 runs at the time of Ali’s dismissal and continued to build on the score through Keneth Boniface, who added 17 runs.
Boniface, who had scored 97 runs in Nigeria’s previous match against Uganda, was dismissed after being caught by Mozambique’s Quelido Anselmo in the 18th over.
Peculiar Egemasi then joined Omonkhobio at the crease and contributed 123 runs off 84 balls, while Omonkhobio went on to score 84 runs off 73 balls.
Bright Nyong produced the outstanding performance of the innings, scoring an unbeaten 137 runs off 53 balls to help Nigeria reach 461 runs for the loss of six wickets in 50 overs.
In their chase, Mozambique struggled against Nigeria’s bowling attack and were bowled out for 54 runs in 23 overs.
Only Emerson Ndzeute, who scored 11 runs off 16 balls, and Rodrigues Mangue, with 19 runs off 13 balls, managed to reach double figures for Mozambique.
Nigeria consequently secured a convincing 407-run victory over Mozambique.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Benson Ezugwu/Emmanuel Afonne