Vincent Adewoye was the hero as Nigeria stunned Kenya by 3 wickets to register their first win over Kenya on Monday in the third match of the Kenya-Nigeria Bilateral Series at the Nairobi Sikh Union Club.
Adewoye picked 2-12 and later scored an unbeaten 41 to lead the way for the Steve Tikolo coached side that to stun the home side for the first time.
It was the third time that former Kenyan coach and captain Tikolo is leading a side into registering their maiden win over his countryside.
Kenya's cricket coach Angara praises team development after a four-wicket win over Nigeria in the T20 series.
In 2016, while coaching Uganda, Tikolo led the team into beating Kenya by two wickets in quadrangular tournament that also included Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Five years later, Tikolo was in the opposite dressing room when Tanzania beat Kenya for the first time. Then Tikolo’s coached Tanzania bowled out Kenya for 138 in pursuit of 187 at the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers Regional Final in Rwanda.
Adewoye’s good show with the ball and Isaac Okpe’s 2 for 19 led his team into restricting Kenya to 149 for 7 before his 18-ball 41 led enabled them into the historic win.
Nigeria’s improvement with the bat in the series continued with a much-improved show in the powerplay. After the end of the powerplay, they had posted 50 for 2, a performance that skipper Sylvester Okpe said played a key role in the win.
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“We wanted to get more runs with wickets in hand in the powerplay and that’s actually what happened as Sulaimon Runsewe (21), Selim Salau (19) and Elijah Olaleye (30) played well and to the laid-up plan. We knew that Kenya would come hard after that but we kept it cool and kept on rotating the strike to the end,” Okpe said.
Adewoye put on a match winning fifth wicket stand of 54 with Olaleye that got them to 128 after 17 overs with five wickets in hand.
The match seemed to have gotten away from the Kenyans in the 15th over when Adewoye made 21 runs off Vraj Patel.
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There was brief panic in the Nigeria dugout when the Francis Mutua got two wickets to leave Nigerians on 137 for 7 with 12 balls to play. But a boundary and a number of singles the next over ensured that Nigeria sealed the win in four balls to play.
Nairobi Titans lived up to their name as they recorded an eight-wicket victory against Silver Cheetahs as the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association Women’s League started.
Earlier Kenya had a promising start but only faded away thanks to Adewoye’s two wickets in the middle of the first inning.
Kenya were at 63 for 2 after eight overs and looked set for a big score until when Adewoye removed Rakep Patel (13) and Neil Mugabe (16).
Sachin Bhudia held on Kenyan inning with an unbeaten 25 from 14 balls.
The series continues tomoroow with the fourth T20 match at the same venue.