Nigeria maintain W’Cup qualifiers dominance

Nigeria’s male senior cricket team, the Yellow Greens, made it three wins in three matches at the 2026 ICC World Cup Africa Sub-Regional Qualifier C, beating a hard-fighting Eswatini by five wickets at the NCF Oval 2 of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja on Tuesday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

Eswatini won the toss and elected to bat first and they gave the Nigerian bowlers a run for their money with 137 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs.

Captain Adil Butt was the star performer for the South Africans, hitting 88 runs from 60 balls not out but the Nigerian bowling charge, led by Isaac Danladi and Ridwan Abdulkareem, with three wickets each, were able to dismiss Eswatini’s batters in the first innings.

The Yellow Greens had a shaky chase in the second innings with none of the players in the batting lineup able to reach half a century while Eswatini bowlers Minhaz Khojbariya, Mancoba Jele, Melusi Magagula and But had one wicket each.

Despite the nail-biting innings, Steve Tikolo’s side were able to complete their chase in 63 minutes, posting 138 runs for the loss of five wickets in 15 overs and picking a five-wicket win for their third of the tournament.

The win keeps Nigeria at the top table with six points and in pole position for one of the two spots in the final phase of the qualifiers.

Meanwhile, Botswana kept up the chase behind Nigeria after winning their third game of the series with a dominant 10-wicket win over Ivory Coast.

Sierra Leone also moved up to four points to stay third and contend for a place as well after beating St. Helena by four wickets.

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