Nigeria Cricket Team Defeats Ghana in World Cup Qualifier

Nigeria’s Junior Yellow Greens have bounced back from a narrow opening-day defeat to Uganda with a commanding five-wicket victory over Ghana at the Gahanga Oval on Monday, reigniting their bid for a place at the 2028 ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup.

Keneth Boniface, who produced a superb innings of 97 runs off 107 balls against Uganda, was at it again on Tuesday as Nigeria restricted Ghana to just 93 all out before completing the chase with more than 27 overs to spare.

Boniface led with the ball, hitting four wickets as the Junior Yellow Greens dismissed the Ghanaians for just 93 runs all out in 35.5 overs.

He led with the bat again in the second innings, hitting 30 runs from 32 balls to push Nigeria’s 96 runs for five wickets in just 22.2 overs.

Speaking after his player of the match performance, Boniface credited the team’s strategy for his composed knock at the crease:

“I’m just trying to go on with the team plan. The team plan is just to play around and get what I need, so I have to just wait there, enjoy the game, less pressure. That’s all.”

Nigeria captain Ali Rahmon reflected on the team’s tactical approach and where the side still needs to improve.

“Firstly, when we lost the toss, it actually went our way because we were actually looking to bat and bowl first, get some early wickets and mount pressure, but we didn’t really get the early wicket. We got more dot balls though, and mounted pressure, and we were able to bowl them out, the bowlers did a very good job restricting them to 94 runs.

“But I feel as a batting unit, we are not there yet because we lost too many wickets chasing 94 runs.”

Nigeria will next face tournament hosts Rwanda on Wednesday, and then Mozambique, before their final game against Sierra Leone in what promises to be another significant test of their qualification credentials.