The maiden finals of the Women’s National U-17 Cricket Championship came to an end on Sunday at the Cricket Oval, Mashood Abiola stadium, Abuja with South-South as runaway winners.
The final match saw two giants, South South and South West, with dominant performances so far in the tournament squared up against each other.
Both teams had defeated North West, North Central and South East on their way to the game to stage a winner takes all encounter.
South-South who had shown dominance over the last 12 months in women’s cricket in Nigeria were clear favorites, but the narrow win of 10 runs against South East, gave the South West team a glimmer of hope.
South-South won the toss and elected to bat, scoring a massive total of 114 runs for the loss of 2 wickets in 15 overs.
Igbinedion Victory scored 32 runs off 44 balls, strongly supported by Peace Monday with 29 runs off 28 balls (not out) and Captain Ogechi George with 23 runs off 21 balls.
In the second innings, South West could barely produce a decent partnership and batsmen crumbled like pack of cards to the superior fire power of the South South bowlers.
In the end, South West could only manage a meager score of 30 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 15 overs.
South-South won by 84 runs and were crowned champions of the tournament.
South West came second after winning three out of four games.
South East and North Central ended up in the 3rd and 4th position but North West settled for 5th position after losing all games.
The tournament, which saw five zones in participation, started on Friday 27th September after a zonal elimination series was successfully concluded across 5 geo-political zones of the country.
