For Lucky Piety, one is not enough. The Nigerian women’s cricket team captain, who is still savouring her team’s victory over Rwanda in the final of the NCF Women’s T20i Invitational Tournament, tagged Kambarami Cup, the success will only be completed when she leads the country to victory at the forthcoming Kwibuka T20 Tournament in Rwanda and then make it to the World Cup.

She said these targets are achievable if the team continues with its current pace of development.
Before Saturday’s final in the competition that also featured South Africa and Zimbabwe’s U-19 teams, as well as Ghana’s national team, not many followers of the game gave the Nigerian girls much chance of beating Rwanda, that had earlier thrashed the hosts in one of the group games.

But Piety and her mates had other ideas. She told The Guardian that losing the first game was the wakeup call that they needed to up their game.

On the difference between the first game and the final against Rwanda, Piety said: “It is just the mindset; we left the first game behind and focused on the next. This is a strong team always working to get better. We have our weaknesses, but we try to build on our strengths and correct our lapses.

“Now that we have won this, we will focus on the Kwibuka Cup, which has a different strategy. As the president has said, this is the beginning. We hope to continue working hard and doing our best to get to the biggest stage.”

In the Kambarami Cup’s final game between two familiar teams and a rivalry spanning seven years, Nigeria won the toss and elected to bat first as expected, hoping to set a decent total worth defending.

The early overs were plagued with dot balls and surprisingly a maiden fourth over, as Nigeria never really got going. After six overs of batting power play, Nigeria Women were on 27 runs for the loss of one wicket.

But things started changing when Esther Sandy was introduced, as she provided the required spark with a couple of boundaries to get Nigeria back on track.

All that was halted when Esther Sandy was run out after contributing 26 runs off 28 balls. Captain Piety then came in and as expected, she scored a couple of boundaries but was unlucky to be caught out for 17 runs off 15 Balls in 13.3 overs with Nigeria on 62 runs for the loss of two wickets.

From then, it was a free fall as Nigeria could not manage a decent partnership, losing the next seven wickets for a combined 18 runs to finish with a total of just 80 runs all out in 20 overs.

The icing on the cake for Rwanda was Captain Marie Diane Bimenyimana finishing with a hat-trick of wickets as she consolidated her total wickets for the tournament with 14, leading the log.

In the second innings, Nigeria opening bowlers were tidy on the lines, giving nothing away in the first two overs to restrict Rwanda to just three runs.

But Rwanda stayed patient, scoring the first boundary in the third over to finish with seven runs. Peace Usen clawed back two quick wickets of the dangerous Fanny and Giselle as Rwanda finished the fifth over with 19 runs. At the end of the batting power play of six overs, Rwanda Women were on 23 runs still for the loss of two wickets.

Nigeria got another breakthrough when Clarisse Umutoniwase was dismissed for just nine runs off 14 balls with Rwanda on 35 runs after 10 overs. Nigeria continued to fight as they managed to drag the game to 30 runs off 30 balls with five wickets left in the mix to be taken.

However, two wickets for Piety flipped the game in favour of Nigeria for the first time as Rwanda required 24 runs off 20 balls.

Three wickets dropped quickly again with the last pair needing 17 runs off 11 balls.

Unbelieving to the literal eyes, maximum excitement laced with a full dose of panic for both teams but proper enjoyment for neutrals, Nigeria rose from the ashes to snatch what would be considered a remarkable victory against such arch rivals, becoming the least number of runs successfully defended in the history of this tournament

In the end, Rwanda finished agonisingly short with 71 runs all out in 20 overs.

Usen, who finished with three wickets, conceding 18 runs in four overs, was named player of the match for the third time in six games as Nigeria won by nine runs to emerge 2026 champions.

Although her team lost the title, Rwanda’s Marie Diane Bimeyinmana won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, Zimbabwe’s Beloved Biza was named Best Batter, Nigeria’s Peace Usen got the Best Bowler crown, while Chukuonye Christabel, also of Nigeria won the Best Fielder award.

Earlier in the third place game, South Africa Women’s U-19 defeated their Zimbabwean counterparts by 70 runs to take hime the bronze medal.