Tanzania booked their spot at the 2026 ICC Men’s U-19 Cricket World Cup on Saturday after a dominant 98-run victory over Sierra Leone at the UNILAG Cricket Oval in Lagos, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The East Africans finished their campaign in the qualifying series hosted by Nigeria with a perfect record of five wins in five games, after making light work of Sierra Leone in their final game.
They needed a win in their last game against the winless Sierra Leone to seal qualification, and captain Laksh Bakrania won the toss for Tanzania, electing to bat first as a signal of the urgency of the East Africans to get the job done as quickly as possible.
They raced to 50 runs in just 18 overs with captain Bakrania at the centre of the crease 53 runs off 82 balls.
His teammate, Agustino Mwamele also contributed 43 off 69 balls as they powered to 179/10 in 49.4 overs.
Unlike their previous games, Sierra Leone came to the party with their bats in the second innings and they seemed ready to upset the leaders after racing to 52 runs in just 14.4 overs.
But their grit was undone by some brilliant bowling from Tanzania’s Hamza Onai, who got five wickets, plotting the West Africans’ fall after just 81 runs for 10 wickets in just 26.4 overs.
As a result, Tanzania amassed the maximum 10 points to top the table as Namibia’s threat – with a four-wicket win over Kenya – could only get them second place.
The result also meant Sierra Leone, who arrived in Nigeria without any of their training equipment due to flight redirection and rescheduling issues, didn’t win any match in the series.
Hosts Nigeria and Uganda will face off on Sunday (today) in the last game of the series and the winner of that encounter will finish fourth in the qualifiers.
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