Venue: FB Field
Date: Wednesday 24th July 2013
Toss: Won by Nigeria
Match Type: 50 Over’s
Result: Jersey won by 6 wickets
A HUMBLING AND EMBARRASSING DEFEAT
Nigeria was brought back to earth swiftly and decisively by a rampant Jersey side. The earth-shattering thud could be heard on the streets of Abuja and Lagos. Nigeria came into the match in a confident mood after two straight victories over Vanuata and Kuwait. Nigeria won the toss and elected to bat and Ademola Onikoyi was out first ball caught Gough bowled Connolly. Nine balls later Segun Olayinka was caught by Macfferty off Bordenstin for nought. The trio of Ricky sharma, Dotun Olatunji and Kunle Adegbola tried to rally and gave the Nigerians some respectability, but in truth they were undone by a fine fielding and bowling performance of their hosts. Nigeria was dismissed for 96 runs off 40:1 of their allotted 50 over’s. Sharma scored 52 runs and Adegbola 13 runs. The others got single figures with 5 ducks.
Jersey had 40 minutes to negotiate before lunch and Saheed Akolade bowling off extreme pace dealt them two heavy blows. Jersey’s pair of Ben Stevens and Ed Farley got to lunch without further loss. After lunch Jersey got to the safety of 97 runs for the loss of a further 2 wickets.
Yes, Nigeria lost but the defeat spurred them on and they were determined to defeat Bahrain and Argentina to qualify.
The defeat instead of demoralizing Nigeria angered and charged them to go for glory.
