Nigeria’s women’s U-19 cricket team coach, Sarah Bhakita, has set a minimum target of reaching the semi-finals at the 2025 ICC Women’s U-19 World Cup, scheduled to take place from January 18 to February 2nd, 2025 in Malaysia.
Bhakita, who led the Junior Female Yellow Greens to secure Africa’s sole qualification spot by defeating Zimbabwe in the regional qualifiers, is optimistic about the team’s chances in their second World Cup appearance.
In the group stages, Nigeria is set to face Samoa, South Africa, and New Zealand, aiming to progress to the Super 6 stage, which will determine the semi-finalists.
“My target is to get to the semi-finals at least,” Bhakita told the media.“We have quality players with resilience, resolve, and ambition. That goal is not out of our range. We’ve studied our opponents, and no team is unbeatable.”
After two phases of camping in Nigeria, the Junior Female Yellow Greens are currently refining their strategies at the OMTEX Cricket Institute in India. They will then head to Sarawak, Malaysia, for warm-up matches against Pakistan and Scotland on January 13 and 15, respectively.
“Our preparations have been intense since qualifying,” Bhakita added. “At some point, it was a bit overwhelming for the girls, so we took a short break before resuming in November. India is about fine-tuning—we’ve done most of the work in Nigeria. Now it’s about addressing weaknesses and refining our approach.”
Nigeria will begin their World Cup campaign against fellow debutants Samoa at the Borneo Cricket Ground on January 18. They will then face test nation New Zealand on January 20, followed by South Africa on January 22 in the final group game.
Bhakita expressed confidence in her team’s preparation and readiness to compete at the highest level, emphasizing their ambition to make history for Nigerian cricket.
