Nigeria’s female U-19 cricket team, the Junior Female Yellow Greens, has qualified for the Super 6 stage of the 2025 ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in Malaysia, where they will face England and Ireland.
The Junior Female Yellow Greens finished their group campaign with a 41-run (DLS method) defeat against South Africa on Wednesday, but their historic two runs win over New Zealand on Monday, as well as the share of points against Samoa was more enough to see them advanced as the second-best team in Group C.
The second meeting between Nigeria and South Africa (in women’s cricket) in the last one year, saw captain Piety Lucky win the toss and send the leading African side to bat first.
South Africa got off to a good start led by Simone Lourens’ four fours in the crease but she was eventually curtailed by the Nigeria captain, Lucky, in the seventh over before the game was forced down to eight overs by a rain stoppage.
After the restart, Lucky continued from where she stopped, dismissing Kayla Reyneke with another wicked ball as the South Africans finished the first innings 49 for 2.
Nigeria’s chase was nervy and the adrenaline rush didn’t help Sarah Bakhita’s side who only mustered 24 for 8. Irrespective of the result, the Nigerian team will continue to chase history as they will face England and Ireland respectively in the Super 6 stage on Saturday, January 25 and Wednesday, January 29th, 2025.
England and Ireland emerged from Group B where they finished first and third respectively. The Junior Female Yellow Greens will need all the points and runs in the next round to consolidate their group stage efforts as they hope to reach the semi-finals.
