Nigeria’s Junior YellowGreens Focused on Rwanda After Dominant Win against Ghana
After putting behind their opening day defeat by Ugandaq, Nigeria’s Junior YellowGreens yesterday bounced back with a commanding five-wicket victory over Ghana at the Gahanga Oval, reigniting their bid for a place at the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Now, the Nigerian junior cricketers are focused on tournament hosts Rwanda on Wednesday, 12 August 2026 before also clashing with Mozambique.
Their final game against Sierra Leone has been described as another significant test of their qualification credentials.
Yesterday, the Junior YellowGreens restricted Ghana to just 93 all out before completing the chase with more than 27 overs to spare. Nigeria delivered their most complete performance of the tournament so far — a result built on disciplined bowling, sharp fielding, and a composed run chase.
Nigeria’s campaign began on Sunday against Uganda at Gahanga 2, where the Junior YellowGreens were sent in to bat and faced early pressure, losing wickets at regular intervals.
Standing firm amid the collapse, Kenneth Boniface produced a superb innings of 97 runs off 107 balls, laced with nine fours and six sixes, narrowly missing out on a well-deserved century.
He was well supported by Okasha Isiyaku, who made a patient 34 off 81 deliveries, as Nigeria posted 176 all out in 45 overs.
In defence of the total, Nigeria’s attack fought hard. Pelumi Orimolade led the way with 2/24, with Abdullahi Ismail, Princewill Chigozie and Okasha Isiyaku each chipping in with a wicket. Uganda, however, held their nerve, chasing the target down with 178/5 in 38.2 overs — driven by a fine 72 from Samuel Ahaisibwe — to complete a five-wicket win.
Given little time to dwell on the result, Nigeria returned to action on Monday determined to make an immediate statement, and did exactly that.
Ghana won the toss and chose to bat first, but found no rhythm against a relentless Nigerian attack. Kenneth Boniface starred with the ball this time, claiming 4/33 from eight overs, while Precious Ayeni was equally impressive with figures of 2/9 from eight overs.
Princewill Chigozie bowled with excellent control for 1/9 from 10 overs, and Okasha Isiyaku, Pelumi Orimolade and Daniel Ayodele shared the remaining wickets as Ghana were bowled out for 93 in 39.5 overs. David Ateak’s 26 was the lone bright spot for the Ghanaian innings.
Chasing 94 for victory, Nigeria were tested by some tight Ghanaian bowling, slipping to 56/4 and later 77/5.
But the Junior YellowGreens held their composure. Boniface, once again the standout performer, finished the match unbeaten on 30 off 32 balls, striking four fours and a six. Andrew Abah (20 off 42) and Peculiar Egemasi (a brisk 17 off 17) provided crucial support as Nigeria reached 96/5 in 22.2 overs to seal a five-wicket victory.
Speaking after the match, 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, 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.”