In an action-packed day at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom, the two semi-finals played in the U19 Cricket World Cup Africa Division 2 qualifiers saw Nigeria U19 and Sierra Leone U19 come out trumps over Tanzania U19 and Mozambique U19 respectively to book their place in the Africa Division 1, where they meet up with Kenya U19, Uganda U19 and Namibia U19.
While Nigeria and Sierra Leone will still play in the Final to determine the overall winners of the 9-nation tournament, the all-important match will be played between Tanzania and Mozambique in the 3rd/4th play-off to determine the final qualifier from Division 2 into Division 1.
Sierra Leone survived a vicious spell of pace bowling by Mozambique’s Frederico Carava, who tore apart their batting line-up with 7/33 in 6.5 overs. Sierra Leone had all to thank for Osman Sankoh (51 off 49) and Aruna Kainessie (40 off 50) partnership of 91 runs for the 6th wicket to rescue the innings from 31/5 at one stage to eventually post a total of 167 in 33.5 overs. A 35 runs partnership for the 9th wicket between Haroun Kamara and Charles Kargbo also helped the team go past the 150 mark.
The bowlers responded brilliantly to then bowl out Mozambique U19 for only 96 runs in 44.5 overs to win the game by a relatively big margin of 71 runs. James Tommy and Haroun Kamara picked up 3 wickets each while George Ngegba picked up 2 wickets. Osman Sankoh too bowled a miserly spell of 1/18 off his 10 overs.
A fascinating 80 runs partnership for the last wicket for Nigeria U19 took them from a position of 89/9 to eventually get bowled out for 169 in 46.2 overs. Segun Ogundipe (62 off 68) and Ifeanyichukwu Uboh (23 n.o off 43) played “The Great Escape” to it’s full effect as the eventual runs were just about enough in the end with Nigeria bowlers doing all their best to back-up their effort and bowl out Tanzania U19 for 134 in 43.2 overs.
Peter Aho (4/37), Sylvester Okpe (2/20) and Isaac Danladi (3/8) combined together to wreck the batting line-up for Tanzania with regular wickets during the middle overs. Gokul Das (61 off 104) played the lone-hand and held one end up for the majority of their innings but when he got out in the 40th over for the 8th wicket, the remaining two wickets could not add much more to Tanzania’s total or take them close to the target and Nigeria U19 scripted a memorable 35 runs victory.
