Nigeria on Sunday beat Rwanda to win the third edition of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) Women’s T20 Invitational Tournament in Lagos.

The match, which was a repeat of the final game in the previous edition as expected, kept spectators and both teams on their toes at the Tafawa Balewa Square cricket oval.

Both sides, undoubtedly the favourites in the tournament, showed great skills and ability going into the final game on Sunday.

Nigeria won the toss and elected to bat.

Salome Sunday 48(58) and Piety Lucky 11(17) were great with the bat, as they were the top batting performers for the hosts to race to 99 runs for the loss of four wickets in 20 overs.

The second innings meant Nigeria would defend the total with good fielding strategy.

Rwanda came on to bat with Gisele Ishimwe 31(48) and captain Diane Bimenyimana 15(19) contributing to the score of the side.

But Lucky and Racheal Samson did the most damage to the East African team, claiming three wickets each.

The defending champions had to manage 90 runs for the loss of nine wickets, for Nigeria to win by nine runs.

Blessing Etim, captain of the Nigerian side, later lauded her team’s performance while appreciating the efforts of their coaches.

“We are very excited about this victory. The outcome is due to the efforts of our coaches and we appreciate their time and patience with us,” Etim said.

Recalling that the game was a repeat of the previous edition where Nigeria lost, Etim said however that her side were under no pressure to win.

“We were under no pressure. We just knew that we needed to stick with the game plan, do the basics and that’s all,” she said.

On the loss to the hosts, Bimemyimana who captained the Rwandan side, said the team would take the lessons home and come back stronger.

“Nigeria is always a tough side and I say kudos to them. But I appreciate the efforts of my team, and we will come back stronger,” she said.

Meanwhile, Salome Sunday was picked as player of the match with her efforts on the bat.

Sierra Leone finished in third place, followed closely by Cameroon, and Ghana in fifth place.

The tournament began on Monday.

(NAN)