Sports
Nigeria Beats Rwanda In Nervy Cricket Clash
Nigeria’s women cricket team, the Female Yellow Greens, picked up their second win of the ongoing Nigeria Cricket Federation Women’s T20i tournament with a five-wicket win over Rwanda on Wednesday at the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval, Lagos, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Following their loss against Tanzania on Monday, Leke Oyede’s ladies needed the win to level up with leaders Rwanda, who were already coasting with two wins in two games.
Bowling in the first innings, Nigeria gathered momentum gradually and their superb fielding ensured the Rwandans were down by five wickets and with 44 runs after the first 10 overs.
Player of The Match, Adeshola Adekunle, tormented Rwanda with her bowling, as she got four wickets while captain Blessing Etim and Salome Sunday also added a couple, but despite their wickets falling, Rwanda pushed the innings to record 95 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs.
Nigeria’s chase of the target in the second innings also started slowly, yet they took control of the game with 56 runs for no loss in the first 10 overs, thanks to the partnership of opening batters, Favour Eseigbe and Esther Sandy.
Sandy was, however, the first to go after she was caught in the 12th over, while captain Etim, Piety Lucky and Eseigbe were also out at intervals.
The Female Yellow Greens felt the pressure as the game approached the 20th over but Sunday eased it with her batting, which got the Nigerians over the line with 99 runs for the loss of five wickets and a five-wicket win.
With two wins each and three rounds of matches to go, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania are in a neck-and-neck race for the title at this year’s tournament.
Nigeria will face Sierra Leone for the second time on Thursday (today) in the afternoon after Rwanda and Tanzania have faced off in the morning.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor