It has been a very steep learning curve for Nigeria’s national cricket team at the 2019 ICC T20 Cricket World Cup qualifier and the match against Ireland was not any easier.

Coming on the back of a four-game losing spree, the Yellow Greens, tournament debutants and the lowest-ranked team in the tournament were always going to struggle against a well established T20 side like Ireland it was always going to be a mountain perhaps too high to climb for the Yellow Greens.

And so it proved with Nigeria losing their fifth straight game as Ireland won by 8 wickets,

Nigeria won the toss and chose to bat first scoring a below par 66 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs.

Sesan Adedeji and Isaac Okpe were the only 2 batsmen with double figures for Nigeria scoring 19 and 14 respectively.

Craig Young got 4 wickets conceding 13 runs in 4 overs, supported by Mark Adair with 2 wickets conceding 10 runs in 4 overs, were the best bowling figures for Ireland.

In the second innings, Ireland raced to score the required total, recording 67 runs in just 7.1 overs.

Kevin O’Brien raced to a quick 32 runs off 17 balls before falling to the brilliant bowling of Daniel Ajekun.

Nigeria will play their Final match against Hong-Kong on Sunday 27th October 2019.