Nigeria national cricket team, the Yellow Greens, will face Oman on Wednesday in the third fixture of their qualification campaign in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup qualifier in the UAE.
Being debutants at this level and the least ranked team in this tournament, the Yellow Greens endured painful defeats in their first two fixtures against Jersey and Canada.
They are currently bottom of Group B with no runs and a negative nett run rate of -2.975.
In their opening match against Jersey, the Yellow Greens had to settle for 115 runs chase after Jersey scored 184 in the first match leaving them short of 69 runs.
The second match against Canada was more of a contest as Canada struggled in the middle stages of the game but a late cameo from Hamza Tariq who hit 33 runs off 16 balls and a priceless 57 runs from Nitish Kumar, ensured they had a healthy runs on the board to defend after recording 168 runs in 20 overs.
Nigeria finished on 108 runs losing by 50 runs
Nigeria were quite unfortunate losing 2 wickets in the second over but Chimezie Onwuzilike and Suleimom Runsewe gave Nigeria a chance with a 60 runs partnership in 9 overs.
Captain Onikoyi Ademola lost his wicket being run out and some other players not being able to contribute only meant that Nigeria left too much to do in this format of this game that is a respecter of no man.
Reacting after the match, captain Ademola Onikoyi described the game as a difficult pill to swallow as he felt his team had a chance to win. Missed run out chances and dropped catches were part of the reasons he highlighted as having given Canada the victory.
“When you don’t take your chances when it comes, you will most likely pay dearly for it and that is what happened to us. Canada did not let us off the hook and took their chances quite brilliantly, but we can only learn from the games and move on,” he said. The Captain also appreciated the spirited effort from his teammates.
Coach of the Yellow Greens Clive Ogbimi said while results have so far been disappointing, his side has made progress and taken lots of positives from their two games in the tournament.
He expressed belief that by correcting their shortcomings in the last two games, the Yellow Greens will get back to winning ways when they take on Oman on Wednesday.
“No time to dwell on the games, we have to go back into the nets and correct some of the mistakes we have observed on the field.”
Ogbimi added that the mood in the dressing room is very positive and the Nigeria cricket team will be a much better side when they face Oman on Wednesday.
The 2019 ICC T20 World Cup Cricket Qualifier which will run till Saturday, November 2, 2019, will determine which six teams will qualify for the 2020 ICC T20 World Cup tournament in Australia.
