Team Nigeria on Friday lost her second game to Namibia by 59 runs at the ongoing International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers in Botswana.
The game at the Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) oval in Gaborone saw Namibia winning the toss and electing to bat.
Namibia’s Adri van der Merwe’s 18 runs in 12 balls, including three boundary hits, as well as teammate Yasmeen Khan’s 29 runs in 33 balls was instrumental to the team’s victory.
Aside from the duo, Kayleen Green’s 29 runs in 21 balls also contributed to the team’s total score of 125 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs.
The second innings saw the opening partnership of Esther Sandy and Kehinde Abdul-Quadri secure Nigeria 21 runs in the first four overs.
The fall of Sandy and Abdul-Quadri in the fifth over, saw Nigeria struggle against the 23rd ranked side.
The team was, however, limited to 66 runs for the loss of seven wickets, also in 20 overs.
At the end of the game, Coach Onome Oghenekevwe said the team showed too much respect to their opponents.
“It was tough, we played against a very sound opponent though we believe we could have done better than what we did. The girls showed too much respect to the Namibian side.
“At a point in time, the game slipped out of our hands, but we came back stronger, tried to contain them and limited them to 125 runs in the first innings.
“We had a very good start in the second innings. We were on 20 runs in the first four overs and were hoping to capitalise on that.
“ But the moment we lost two wickets, the whole thing started crumbling and we couldn’t survive the onslaught from the Namibians,’’ he said.
Team Nigeria will clash with Uganda on Saturday, before meeting Cameroon on Sept. 13, all in group B.
Meanwhile, Group A comprises hosts, Botswana, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Only one team is expected to qualify from the 11-nation tournament ending on Sept. 19.nan
