Sports
Rwanda Leads NCF T20i Cricket As Nigeria Lose Tourney
Former champions Rwanda made it two wins in two matches at the ongoing Nigeria Cricket Federation Women’s T20i invitational tournament, after beating Sierra Leone by 10 wickets on Monday at the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval in Lagos, Tidesports source gathered.
Leonard Nhamburo’s ladies, who beat debutants and the highest ranked team, Tanzania, by 33 runs on Sunday also inflicted Sierra Leone’s second defeat on them.
The West Africans won the toss and elected to bat in the first innings, but they couldn’t hit the balls and posted just 57 runs all out in 11.5 overs.
That gave Rwanda some light work in the second innings as they needed just 5.5 overs to reach the 58 runs target for no loss.
Earlier, in the second game of the day, hosts Nigeria, who also beat Sierra Leone in their first game last Sunday lost their second game of the tournament to Tanzania by 49 runs, as the debutants grabbed their first win of the tourney.
Having faltered in their first game on Sunday, the East Africans returned with full throttle against Nigeria and posted 134 runs for the loss of four wickets in 20 overs, and the Female Yellow Greens could only muster 85 runs for eight wickets in 20 overs.
After the second round of matches, Rwanda lead the tourney with four points while Tanzania and Nigeria, with two points each, are second and third respectively with the East Africans ahead of the hosts with a better net run rate. Sierra Leone are still without a win after two matches.
The teams will return to action on Wednesday with Nigeria and Rwanda renewing their rivalry, while Tanzania will hope to extend their lead against Sierra Leone.
The four-nation tournament will be played till March 4 in a round-robin format and the team with the highest point will go home with the title.
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