Female Yellow Greens reach African Games semis

…rise in T20 rankings
Nigeria senior women’s cricket team, the Female Yellow Greens, have qualified for the semi-finals in the cricket event of the 13th African Games in Ghana, pulling up a big shock among heavyweights in Group A, where they finished second with three points, PRIMANEWS Sports Extra reports.
The Female Yellow Greens lost their last group game against the best team on the continent, South Africa, by four wickets on Sunday, but their three points from one win and a draw, as well as a superior net run rate of 0.778 was enough to see them through at the expense of Tanzania and Namibia.
Against the South Africans, captain Blessing Etim won the toss and elected to bat first but Nigeria were only able to muster 74 runs all out in 20 overs despite their seemingly strong start. South Africa reached the target with 31 balls remaining in the second innings, finishing with 78 runs for just six wickets in 14.5 overs.
In Nigeria’s first two matches, they settled for a draw against Tanzania before upsetting Namibia by 55 runs on Friday.
Leke Oyede’s ladies will now face Zimbabwe, who finished top of Group B in the second semi-finals on Monday by 2:50pm Nigerian time at the Achimota Cricket Oval.
Meanwhile, as a result of the Female Yellow Greens’ incredible run in the last three weeks, Nigeria have moved two places up in the latest International Cricket Council T20 rankings released on Sunday.
The team are now 27th in the world and still eighth in Africa.
Off the back of a second-place finish at the fifth Nigeria Cricket Federation Women’s T20i invitational tournament in Lagos, the Female Yellow Greens followed up the outing with impressive performances at the African Games in Ghana.
Between February and now, they have won five out of nine T20i games including three wins against Rwanda (two) and Namibia (one) who are ranked higher than they are.
Rwanda however maintained their 26th place in the world with Nigeria, who have triumphed over them three times in their last four meetings now breathing down their neck.
South Africa are still fifth in the world and number one in Africa just as Australia kept their top place in the world rankings.
NCF president, Uyi Akpata, attributed the team’s performance to hardwork and commitment.
“We are pleased to see the girls play to near their full potential. I can assure that more is still coming, but honestly all this validates the work and the vision of the current leadership of federation,” Akpata said.