The South-South cricket team continued their dominance at this year’s Nigeria Cricket Federation/PwC U-17 National Championship, winning the boys and girls events with unbeaten runs at the twin oval, Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja on Sunday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
It was their fifth consecutive victory in the girls’ event and fourth win in the boys’ event at the NCF/PwC tournament.
In the girls’ event, team South-South defeated their counterparts from the South East by 35 runs. The champions batted first and posted 116 runs all out in 20 overs but their opponents lost the second innings after 18.2 overs with just 67 runs for the loss of 10 wickets.
South West took the bronze medal in the girls’ event after a six-wicket win over their counterparts from the North West.
The boys’ final also showed the sheer dominance of the South-South team as they blew their counterparts from the South West apart by 50 runs.
South-South recorded 129 runs for the loss of 10 wickets in 32.5 overs and their opponents were no match in the second innings, posting 79 runs all out in 26.5 overs.
Team North West took the bronze in the boys’ game with a 24-run win over South East.
Joseph Omonkhobhio and Joy Osazuwa of Team South-South were the Most Valuable Players in both categories.
A PwC official, Tolu Adeleke, said the event had lived up to the expectations of his firm as a tool to galvanise the country and also empower the girl-child.
“We are very glad that the Nigeria Cricket Federation has sustained the values that piqued our interest in this project; the fact that the event has even been elevated to become the nursery that produces our national team players is very encouraging,” he said.
The NCF/PwC U-17 championship began in 2019 with some of the players that passed through the tournament at male and female levels progressing into the national teams. They include Piety Lucky, Prosper Useni, former U-19 captain Ridwan Abdulkareem among others.
