The Female Yellow Greens needed eight runs against their fancied opponent, the Victoria Pearls of Uganda, to become the unlikely winner of the bronze medal at the All-African Games.
Lucky Piety is on strike against one of Uganda’s best all-rounders Rita Musamali. She hits a boundary behind point on the first ball and immediately puts pressure on the more experienced Musamali. As she runs up to bowl the second ball, Piety moves away and sends her back to signal she’s not ready. The young Nigerian is up for the fight!
When she is eventually ready to take strike, she creams the next ball for a boundary as well with the back-to-back boundaries clinching Nigeria the bronze medal. With an ice cool knock under pressure that was way beyond her age, Piety displayed that she is ready to compete with the best.
She gets the privilege of leading a golden generation of Nigerian women’s cricketers at the 2025 U-19 T20 World Cup in Malaysia. Rwanda led the way last time by showing that investment in women’s cricket pays dividends after their golden generation earned them a place at the inaugural U-19 World Cup in South Africa in 2023.
Nigeria have followed the same path. The cricket federation were meticulous with their long-term plans for women’s cricket. While, in the short term it cost them some wins, ultimately it has earned them a place at the World Cup. The young girls were thrown in the deep end; so they had no option other than learning quickly on the job and adapting to the demands of international cricket. The end goal was to ensure the squad develops as a unit and learns to trust in each other.
The same group of girls were used in their annual Nigeria women’s T20 tournament, regional qualifiers and the annual Kwibuka tournament in Rwanda. The experience of playing in different competitions and under different conditions has battle hardened the team to perform under pressure.
Qualifying for the World Cup
The qualifiers in Rwanda would be the litmus test for the group. Zimbabwe were expected to breeze through the qualifiers but a determined Nigeria had a trick up their sleeves. The Female Yellow Greens won their group by defeating Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Malawi to avoid a difficult semifinal. And once they made the final by easily dispatching Rwanda, they were just one game away from the Holy Grail.
In the final, batting first, the Nigerians could only manage a low total of 77/8 in 20 overs against disciplined Zimbabwean bowling. While rain proved to be the spoilsport, Nigeria were deemed the winners and qualifiers, due to their earlier group stage victory over Zimbabwe. It was a touch fortuitous. And while we will never know if the U19 Chevrons would have chased down the total, Nigeria fully deserved the World Cup spot after staying unbeaten throughout the qualifiers. They made history by becoming the first Nigerian women’s team to qualify for an ICC World Cup, after their male counterparts had achieved the fate four years earlier by making it to the 2020 U19 Men’s World Cup.
The U19 girls are also the only side handled by ladies, both of whom are legends of the game in their own rights. Sarah Bhakita is a legend in Kenya and Blessing Etim is a former captain of the Female Yellow Greens. Etim in particular is very instrumental due to her influence in nurturing most of the current generation of players, most of whom refer to her as “mama”. Just before the qualifiers a journalist had asked Bhakita whether she was scared of being the only female led technical team at the qualifiers in a male dominated space. Achieving World Cup qualification is a perfect reply to that question.
Nigeria will fancy themselves to make the Super Six in Malaysia
Nigeria are in a group that includes South Africa, New Zealand and Samoa. With three teams guaranteed qualification to the Super Six stage, one win could be sufficient for Nigeria to progress to the next stage and extend their stay in Malaysia. So, they will definitely fancy themselves to get out of the group.
Currently, Nigeria possesses some of the finest talent in ladies’ cricket in Africa. Players such as Lilian Ude with her lively pace, Usen Peace with her wily spinners, the long leavers of Peculiar Agboya and the all-round skills of captain Lucky Piety.
The U-19 World Cup might be the now, but this generation of players can build on their experience from Malaysia and use it to push the senior side to greater heights in Africa.
The Nigerian Cricket Federation has ensured that the girls are also given an education. Most of the girls have study bursaries for them to make sure they go through their high school all the way to university.
The U19 girls are keenly aware that a very ambitious fraternity back home will be cheering them on. Additionally, a whole continent will have their backs as they take on the world.
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