Rwanda beat Nigeria to win maiden T20 Invitational Women Tournament

After drawing the first blood during the last group game of the inaugural Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) Women’s T20 Invitational, Nigeria fell to Rwanda’s bowling power in the closing game of the event.

Winning the toss, Rwanda Women’s team chose to bat and left 129 runs on the board for the loss of five wickets in 20 overs. In the second innings, the Nigerian team struggled to put runs on the board as their wicket fell in succession to lose with 53 runs.

NCF President, Uyi Akpata, said the matches between the host and Rwanda were top matches and the players gave a good account of themselves.

“ Nigeria beat Rwanda in the group match and lost in the finals. For us, that is no issue, it shows a lot of improvement from our young team, especially the rate at which the three 15 -year-olds performed for the country.

“Nigeria’s opening batter, Lucky Piety, Lilian Ude (who won two Player of the Match Awards in Nigeria’s five matches) and Peculiar Agboya, have justified their inclusion in the team,” he said.

He praised sponsors, Access Bank, Elo Electricity Distribution, PET Foundation, EMR, for believing in the youth and cricket to throw their weight behind the Federation.
“We are grateful,” he added.

Meanwhile, President of the Rwanda Cricket Association, Stephen Musaale, said the event is a great show of the development in African Women’s Cricket and beyond Rwanda winning it, it was nice seeing that a lot of development was going on with other teams.

The NCF also confirmed that the event would become a yearly event where top women cricket teams would be invited to the country.