Abdulrahaman Jimoh’s historic wicket for Nigeria was the major positive for the Junior Yellow Greens as they fell by 246 runs to 2016 champions West Indies on Thursday at the ongoing ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa.

The loss to already qualified West Indies who have a perfect record following wins over England and Australia means an improbable knockout spot is now out of reach for the debutants who turned in a much-improved performance from Monday’s loss to Australia.

The Junior Yellow Greens will take pride at how they beat the odds to stand among the world’s greatest cricket nations and Jimoh’s feat which made him the first player to take a wicket for Nigeria at this level will forever be in the record books.

West Indies won the toss and elected to bat first comfortably getting to 70 runs in 17 overs for the loss of one wicket.

Nigeria clawed back into the game taking 4 wickets as at 30 overs but the seasoned Windies batted smartly and navigated their way to an impressive first inning score of 303 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 50 overs.

Peter Aho finished for 2 wickets, conceding 53 runs in 10 overs for the Junior Yellow Greens with Jimoh Abdulrahaman weighing in with 2 wickets and conceding 56 runs in 9 overs.

Captain Sylvester Okpe finished for 66 runs taking 2 wickets while Suleimon Runsewe got 1 wicket for 10 overs conceding 42 runs.

Matthew Patrick scored 68 runs off 70 balls to lead the score for West Indies and captain Kimani Melius added 65 runs off 81 balls.

In the second innings, Jordan Seals got Runsewe Suleimon off his second ball and took 1 wicket in every over to finish at 4 wickets, conceding 19 runs in his very impressive 6 overs spell. Ashmead Nedd got 3 wickets and Mathew Patrick took 2 wickets to puncture whatever attacks the Nigeria team tried to string together.

In the end, Nigeria could only manage a paltry 57 runs all out in 21.4 overs.

West Indies won the match by 246 runs.

On paper, the final score might seem a whitewash but it was by far a more impressive performance from the Junior Yellow Greens and on the evidence of their display in Kimberly the signs are positive for the future of Nigeria cricket.

The Junior Yellow Greens play their final group game against England on Saturday 25th January 2020 at the Diamond Oval, Kimberley.