The Junior Yellow Greens, as Nigeria’s U-19 cricket national team are fondly called, began their World Cup adventure on a sour note, losing by 10 wickets against three-time champions, Australia, in their Group B encounter at the Diamond Oval in Kimberly, South Africa on Monday, The Punch report.
Coach Uthe Ogbimi’s won the toss and elected to bat first. Miracle Ikaigbe and Runsewe Suleimon opened the batting for the team and very quickly Suleimon was out just after two balls.
Nigeria’s U-19 cricket national team was 12 runs for the loss of three wickets in five overs and after 10 overs were 28 runs for the loss of three wickets.
Wickets fell in quick successions and Nigeria could not muster a decent partnership and were bowled out for 61 runs in 30.3overs.
Elijah Olaleye was the only spark in the Nigerian team with 21 runs off 53 balls.
Tanveer Sangha was the star performer with the ball for Australia with an impressive haul of five wickets for 14 runs in 10 overs with four maidens in the process.
In the second innings, Australia made light work of run chase racing to 50 runs in just seven overs and the Junior Yellow Greens were not impressive on the pitch either with dropped catches, miss-field and lost run-out chances.
Australia finished the match with 10 wickets intact scoring 62 runs.
The result puts Nigeria bottom of the group with Australia, who had lost their opening match to the West Indies on Friday taking the top spot.
While England lost to the West Indies in the other game in the group.
Nigeria will take on the West Indies in their second match on Wednesday.
