Cricket: Rwanda close to lift back to back the NCF Women’s T20 Tournament

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The Rwanda Women’s National Team is in Nigeria where they participated in the International Competition known as the NCF Women’s T20 Tournament organized by the Cricket Association in this country.

After winning the first two matches against Ghana and Sierra Leone, on this Friday, March 31, 2023, Rwanda defeated Cameroon by 126 runs.

After this match, on this Sunday, April 02, 2023, a big match is await in this tournament, where Nigeria the hosts will face Rwanda, in the final match which will determine the winner of this tournament.

If the Rwandan National Team wins this tournament, it will be a repeat of last year’s victory after defeating Nigeria in the final.

Yesterday’s results

• Nigeria on course to battle defending champions Rwanda for supremacy after dispatching Ghana with a comfortable 62 runs victory on match day 4

• Team Rwanda hits over 150 runs for the second time in this tournament with Henriette and Giselle as biggest contributors

• Henriette Inshimwe’s 5 wicket haul and 44 runs with the bat for Rwanda, sets up a classic final showdown against Nigeria with a huge statement of 126 runs victory against Cameroon

Day 4 Match 1: Nigeria vs Ghana

The teams had a much deserved rest to let off steam and re-strategize for the last stretch of the games. Back in action on match day 4, Nigeria resumed her encounter with West Africa arch rivals Ghana.

Ghana won the toss and elected to field first, gifting Nigeria the opportunity to bat first in this tournament. A much improved approach to the batting strategy saw Nigeria racing to 32 runs for no loss of wicket in the first 6 overs of power play. The breakthrough for Ghana came in the 8th over when Abigail lost her wicket scoring 18 runs off 18 balls.

Nigeria continued to pace their innings to prevent a collapse with Agatha Uadiale and Favour Esiegbe holding the fort. Salome Sunday came in the closing stages to score 27 runs to steer Nigeria over the century mark.

Favour Esiegbe scored 22 runs off 41 runs, Agatha Uadiale 25 runs from 33 balls and Salome Sunday with 27 runs off 18 balls.

Kate Awauh got 2 wickets, conceding 18 runs as the best bowling figures for Ghana.

Nigeria eventually finished with 120 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs.

In the second innings, Nigeria opening pairs were too good for Ghana, restricting them to just 7 runs after the 6 overs of power play with 5 of those runs coming from extras. Nigeria continued to turn the screw on the Ghanaian batters who showed resilience as well. At the end of 15 overs, Ghana could only manage 45 runs for the loss of 4 wickets.

Ghana struggled from there in a bid to put runs on the board but the rotation of spin and pace bowling from the Nigeria team was strategic enough to restrict Ghana to a total of 58 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs.

Rachael Samson was the star performer with the ball for Nigeria with 4 wickets, conceding 16 runs in 4 overs.

Rashidath Salia scored 20 runs off 29 runs, supported by Komalpreet Grewal with 11 runs off 23 balls as the best figures with the bat for Ghana.

Salome Sunday was named player of the Match.

Day 4 Match 2: Rwanda vs Cameroon

Rwanda and Cameroon lined up for this game on the back of victories against Ghana and Sierra Leone respectively with the latter hoping to cause another upset.

Rwanda won the toss and elected to bat first, sending in Cameroon to field. Sarah Uwera, opening batter for Rwanda was out early with just 4 runs off 11 balls in the 4th over, to introduce Henriette Isimwe who joined her younger sister in the middle. Missed opportunities from the fielding side helped Rwanda sit comfortably on 38 runs for just the loss of 1 wicket after the first 6 overs of power play.

The Inshimwe’s continued to flourish with the bat as both were on 33 and 24 runs respectively with team score of 71 runs midway into the game. Henriette was run out on 43 runs off 42 balls, joined by Giselle caught on 42 runs off 42 balls.

Alice Ikuze had a late surge of 13 runs off 10 balls to round off an all-round bating performance for team Rwanda

Rwanda finished with 155 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs.

Manuella Mbida got 2 wickets conceding 35 runs as the best bowling effort for team Cameroon.

In the second innings, Rwanda took early wickets to set the tempo of the game regardless of some resistance from the Cameroon batters. At the end of the power play over of 6’ Cameroon were 21 runs for the loss of 5 wickets.

The rest of the innings was a similar story as wickets fell ever other over. In the end Cameroon could only manage a total of 29 runs all out in 9.3 overs, which also became the lowest total scored by a team in the tournament.

Henriette Inshimewe became the first player with a 5 wicket haul off 6 balls and the highest score with the bat of 44 runs off 6 balls in the same game, which earned her the player of the match quite deservingly.

Tournament Schedule:

SATURDAY 1ST APRIL

Sierra Leone vs Cameroon (9:30am)

Nigeria vs Rwanda (1:30pm)

SUNDAY 2ND APRIL

3rd Place (9:30am)

Final (1:30pm)

MONDAY 3RD APRIL

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