Happy days for female cricket in Nigeria as the willow shows the leather off to boundaries with some brilliant performances across 4 geo-political zones as South East commences today.

                                             South-south

The South-South prelims of the Women event kicked off with a bang as Edo State who picked A in the ballots held overnight squared up against the hosts Akwa Ibom who picked B.

Toss won by the Edo captain and chose to bat first.

First Innings 

Edo scored 122 runs for 8

Top performers include Agatha Obulor 18 runs and Joy Efosa 17.

Best bowler for Akwa Ibom was Uwana Moses 1 wicket for 10 runs in 5 overs

Second innings 

Akwa Ibom put up a gallant chase to score 104 for loss of 6 wickets after the allotted 20 overs resulting from the Fielding time penalty.

Blessing Frank was top scorer with, 29 runs.. Uwanna Moses with 25 runs also weighed in.

Top bowling and fielding effort from Agharese Okooboh with 2 wickets and 2 brilliant catches. Munikat Abu with teasing spin bowling finished with 3 wickets for 15.runs in 5overs.

Edo State won by 18 runs to set up a vital clash with Rivers State today.

                                                  South-West

South West recorded a low scoring game as Oyo bowled out Osun for 23 runs after winning the toss and chose to bat.

Oyo chased down the total in just 16 balls and won by 10 wickets.

Olosunde Kafayat of Oyo State took 4wkts in 3overs conceded 2runs while Oladele Karimat of Oyo State took 3wkts in 5overs conceded 9 runs.

 

                                               North Central

Action from North Central saw FCT dominate day one, beating Niger and Kogi states. Having automatically qualified as host of the Final events, key focus from the region will be the game between Niger and Kogi.

Reports from Day one’s play saw Plateau bowl Kofi all out for 55 in 12 overs while they chased the score down in 4.5 overs with charity top scoring with 26 off 12 balls. Pleteau won by 8 wickets.

Niger won toss against FCT and decided to bowl first. FCT scored 103 runs all out with Ashafa top scoring with 28 runs. Abdullahi Nasifat took 4 wickets in her short spell. Niger were bowled out for 29 runs. Regina Obinna and Blessing Aghaja both took two wickets each to give FCT 74 runs victory.

In the third game of the day between FCT and Kogi, FCT dominated play by bowling Kogi all out for 48 runs in 11.4 overs and FCT finished off the game with the loss of one wicket, thereby winning by 9 wickets.

                      North West

Kaduna dominated North West on day one with a 6 wickets victory over Jigawa. Kaduna won the toss and elected to bowl first. Jigawa were bowled out for 118 runs in 20.2 overs with Happiness Pious top scoring with 45 runs while Mary Desmond claimed 4 wickets.

in the second innings

Jessica Joseph from Kaduna led the runs chart after day one as she managed 75 not out against Jigawa in the North West Preliminaries with a supporting 27 from James Grace as they cross 119 in 12 overs chasing down 118 runs scored by Jigawa in 20.2 overs.

Kaduna responded by scoring 119 runs in 13 overs with Jessica Joseph top scoring with 75 runs making sure

Kaduna won the match by 6 wickets.