Nigeria’s Junior YellowGreens bounced back from an opening-day defeat to Uganda with a commanding five-wicket win over Ghana at the Gahanga Oval yesterday, bowling their opponents out for 93 and completing the chase with more than 27 overs to spare.
The victory revived Nigeria’s bid for a place at the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup and marked their most complete performance of the tournament so far, built on disciplined bowling, sharp fielding and a controlled run chase.
Nigeria’s campaign began on Sunday against Uganda at Gahanga 2, where the Junior YellowGreens were sent in to bat and lost wickets at regular intervals. Keneth Boniface anchored the innings with 97 off 107 balls, including nine fours and six sixes, falling three runs short of a century. Okasha Isiyaku supported him with a patient 34 off 81 as Nigeria were bowled out for 176 in 45 overs.
Defending the total, Pelumi Orimolade took 2/24, with Abdullahi Ismail, Princewill Chigozie and Isiyaku each claiming a wicket. Uganda chased the target down for the loss of five wickets in 38.2 overs, with Samuel Ahaisibwe’s 72 the difference.
Ghana won the toss and elected to bat on Monday but found no answer to a disciplined Nigerian attack. Boniface took 4/33 from eight overs, Precious Ayeni returned 2/9 from eight, and Chigozie conceded just nine runs from 10 tight overs. Isiyaku, Orimolade and Daniel Ayodele shared the remaining wickets as Ghana were dismissed for 93 in 39.5 overs. David Ateak’s 26 was the innings’ top score.
Chasing 94, Nigeria slipped to 56/4 and later 77/5 under pressure from tight Ghanaian bowling before recovering. Boniface finished unbeaten on 30 off 32 balls, with Andrew Abah (20) and Peculiar Egemasi (17) offering key support as Nigeria reached 96/5 in 22.2 overs.
Boniface was named Player of the Match for his all-round contribution. ‘I’m just trying to go on with the team plan,’ he said. ‘The team plan is just to play around and get what I need, so I have to just wait there, enjoy the game, less pressure. That’s all.’
Nigeria captain Ali Rahmon said the bowling unit had delivered but flagged concerns over the batting: ‘We got more dot balls though, and mounted pressure, and we were able to bowl them out. Bowlers did a very good job restricting them to 94 runs. But I feel as a batting unit, we are not there yet because we lost too many wickets chasing 94 runs.’
Boniface leads Nigeria’s campaign with 127 runs and four wickets across two matches.
Nigeria face tournament hosts Rwanda on Wednesday, 12 August, before matches against Mozambique and Sierra Leone as they continue their push for World Cup qualification.