By Ijeoma Okigbo
The teams from the South-South on Saturday in Abuja for the fourth consecutive year reached the finals of the PwC/NCF Under-17 Cricket National Championships.
The tournament, in its fourth edition, has seen the two sides dominate the competition with three titles for the male and four titles for the female.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that both teams went unbeaten in the group stage of the competition at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium.
The male team defeated South-West by 17 runs in their first group game, with the women’s team beating South-West also by eight wickets, with both games played on Thursday.
On Saturday, the South-South male defeated North-Central by 10 wickets.
The team made an easy walk past their Northern region opponents, limiting them to nine runs all out in 7.5 overs.
The South-South side needed only two overs to score 10 runs and secure their final match place.
The women’s game also saw the South-South side claim a nine wickets victory over North-East.
The North-East side, however, put up a better performance than in their Friday game against South-West.
In that game, they scored 12 runs but extended the target to 40 runs, all out in 10.1 overs.
South-South needed only 2.4 overs to score 41 for the loss of one and won by nine wickets.
South-South will square up against North-West, winners of Group B, in the final on Sunday while the women’s event will see their female side against South-East.
Theophilus Ibodeme, coach of South-South, later told NAN he was pleased with the performance of their teams.
“I appreciate God for this achievement, it’s not an easy one.
“I also congratulate the coaches back home who put in lots of efforts to groom these players and kudos to the players for always giving their best.
“Above all, this achievement would not have been possible without the support of the member representing the zone on the board of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), Uyi Akpata.
“Now, we can boast of good facilities, quality coaches and more, and we are confident of going back home with the trophies,” he added.
Meanwhile, Team South-West will take on South-East and North-West in the male and female third-place matches respectively.(NAN)
