The Dynamics of U19 cricket in the African region is set for a major tectonic shift as Nigeria U19 have displayed nothing short of outstanding determination and perseverance to score a hat-trick of wins in the first three rounds of matches in the ongoing ICC U19 CWC Africa Division 1 qualifiers in Namibia.
Nigeria U19 have now scored victories over Namibia U19, Kenya U19 and Uganda U19 to remain unbeaten in the tournament so far and have two more games left between them and a spot in the 2020 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa. Having done most of the hard work, Nigeria U19 would know that there is still a lot to play for in the final two matches against Sierra Leone U19 and Tanzania U19 to comprehensively claim their spot from the African region into the U19 World Cup.
Host’s Namibia U19 scored their 2nd consecutive victory and are now on equal points along with Uganda U19 in the points table, but are placed higher due to a superior net run-rate. Kenya U19 scored their first win of the tournament over Tanzania U19 on the 3rd day of action from the 6-nation event. Kenya U19 and Sierra Leone U19 are with one win so far in the tournament and a huge miraculous scenario where they win all their matches and others lose all of their remaining ones might bring them into the contention (highly unlikely, though).
What has been heart-whelming to see is that Nigeria U19 have defended below-par totals of 120+ and 110 against Namibia U19 and Uganda U19 respectively, which shows the massive effort put in by the bowlers in the low-scoring encounters to etch out the wins. Isaac Danladi, Mohameed Taiwo and Rasheed Abolarin have collected 5 wickets apiece from the 3 matches played so far. Emmanuel Boniface has provided good support to them as well, picking up 4 wickets so far in the tournament.
