Nigeria’s Junior Yellow Greens have revived their campaign for a place at the 2028 ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup after defeating Ghana by five wickets at the Gahanga Oval.
Following their narrow opening-day defeat to Uganda, Nigeria delivered a much stronger performance against Ghana, particularly with the ball, as they restricted their opponents to just 93 runs in 35.5 overs.
The bowling unit kept Ghana under pressure throughout the innings, with Keneth Boniface leading the way after claiming four wickets.
Nigeria then completed the chase in 22.2 overs, reaching 96 for five and securing the win with more than 27 overs to spare.
Boniface also contributed with the bat, scoring 30 runs from 32 balls to help Nigeria get over the line despite losing five wickets in the chase.
The all-rounder, who was named Player of the Match, said he remained focused on carrying out the team’s plan rather than putting himself under unnecessary pressure.
“I’m just trying to go on with the team plan. The team plan is just to play around and get what I need, so I have to just wait there, enjoy the game, less pressure. That’s all.”
Captain Ali Rahmon praised the bowlers for their disciplined effort but admitted the batting unit still has room for improvement after Nigeria lost several wickets while chasing a low target.
“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, the bowlers did a very good job restricting them to 94 runs.”
Rahmon added that Nigeria could have been more composed with the bat.
“But I feel as a batting unit, we are not there yet because we lost too many wickets chasing 94 runs.”
The Junior Yellow Greens will next face hosts Rwanda on Wednesday before taking on Mozambique and Sierra Leone in their remaining matches.
Nigeria will now look to build on the Ghana victory as they continue their push for qualification for the 2028 ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup.
