Nigeria 94/3 (8.3 overs) beat Mozambique 93 (19.4 overs) by seven wickets
NCF Oval 1, Abuja, Friday 23 October
Toss: Mozambique, chose to bat
Player of the Match: Isaac Okpe (Nigeria)
HOSTS Nigeria made it three wins from three at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Africa Qualifier C, bowling Mozambique out for 93 and reaching the target with 69 balls remaining.
Isaac Okpe took four wickets for three runs from 3.4 overs, including two maidens.
Mozambique reached 30 without loss in the sixth over before Okpe bowled Jose Bulele for 5. In his next over, he had Gomes Gomes caught by wicketkeeper Selim Salau and bowled Farruque Nhaduate, both for ducks, leaving Mozambique on 32/3.
Joao Hou top-scored with 35 off 31 balls, including four sixes, before he was caught by Miracle Akhigbe off Ridwan Abdulkareem at 46/4. Abdulkareem also removed Lourenco Salomone, caught by Sylvester Okpe, at 58/5.
Captain Agostinho Navicha, who scored an unbeaten 61 against The Gambia on Wednesday, made 20 off 12 balls with three sixes before Elochukwu Ndubudem had him caught by Sylvester Okpe at 83/7. Peter Aho trapped Vieira Tembo lbw for six.
Akhigbe bowled Jose Joao and had Lourenço Simango caught by Abdullahi Ismail. Isaac Okpe ended the innings in the 20th over when Camate Roposo was caught by Abdulkareem.
Nigeria used nine bowlers. Abdulkareem took 2/9 from two overs, and Akhigbe 2/17 from three. Aho, who bowled a maiden, took 1/13, and Ndubudem 1/14.
In reply, Salau scored 21 off nine balls, with three fours and a six, before he was caught by Navicha off Salomone at 34/1 in the third over.
Ali Rahmon scored 41 off 24 balls with eight fours. He shared a second-wicket stand of 50 with Akhigbe before he was caught by Salomone off Tembo at 84/2. Tembo also had Sylvester Okpe caught by Bulele for 6 in the same over.
Akhigbe finished unbeaten on 20 off 15 balls, and Nigeria completed the chase in the ninth over.
Tembo took two for 10 from one over.
Tanzania’s Adil Kassam and Botswana’s Justine Muzungu were the on-field umpires. Zimbabwe’s Iknow Chabi was reserve umpire and South Africa’s Shandre Fritz the match referee.
Mozambique have now lost two of their three matches.
On Saturday, Nigeria play Lesotho on NCF Oval 2, and Mozambique face Uganda on the same ground. Nigeria meet Uganda on Sunday.
