Host’s Nigeria and Ghana posted comprehensive victories over Sierra Leone and Gambia in day 1 of action from Lagos in the Africa A group sub-regional qualifiers for ICC WorldT20. While Nigeria won against Sierra Leone by 88 runs in the first match of the day, Ghana registered a 58 runs victory margin against Gambia in the second match of the day.
Nigeria captain Chimezie Onwuzulike won the man-of-the-match award for his match-winning knock of 54 runs from 36 deliveries and his partnership with Oladotun Olatunji (49 off 35) of 87 runs for the 4th wicket set the tone for their innings as Nigeria posted 165/6 in their 20 overs. Abu Kamara (2/23) and Solomon Williams (2/15) bowled well for Sierra Leone.
Nigerian bowlers were on top of their game from the get go as they kept picking wickets at regular intervals to bowl out Sierra Leone for only 77 runs in the 19th over. A tough outing for their batsmen as only three players managed to go past 10 runs. Mohameed Taiwo (3/14), Syvester Okpe (2/6) and Chimezie Onwuzulike (2/10) did not let anyone in the middle and late order to settle down after the three starting bowlers for Nigeria picked up a wicket apiece in the first 7 overs.
Ghana were far more comfortable during their batting innings as they posted 173/4 in their 20 overs against Gambia. Rexford Bakum (44 off 33) gave the good start to the innings as Julius Mensah (37 n.o off 25) and David Ankrah (34 n.o off 22) provided the late flourish as they posted an unbeaten partnership of 64 runs for the 5th wicket in 34 deliveries. Andre Jarju manage to pick up couple of wickets for Gambia in an otherwise lacklustre performance from the bowling unit.
Gambia batting innings started on a disastrous note as they lost three players in their top 4 without scoring, leaving them at 3/3 in the 2nd over of the innings itself. Very tough for any International side to make a turnaround from that position and the rest of the batting line-up struggled to keep pace with the increasing asking rate. P Faye (55 off 46) played a sparkling knock amongst the falling wickets around him but after he got out in the 16th over, Gambia only managed to get to 115/8 in their 20 overs.
David Pereira (2/16), Isaac Aboagye (2/21) and David Ankrah (1/18) capped of a disciplined bowling performance by the Ghanian team. Both Nigeria and Ghana have started on a strong note with good boost to their net run-rate’s as well with the big victory margins. All set for action from day 2 of the qualifiers now from Lagos.
