Wednesday fixtures
Morning
Cameroon vs Kenya 9:15am
Malawi vs Botswana 9:45am
Afternoon
Rwanda vs Uganda 1:15pm
Zimbabwe vs Nigeria 1:45pm
Nigeria's opening bowler Lilian Ude ripped through Rwanda's batting order to finish with a record 6 wickets for 7 runs in 4 overs as the West Africans inflicted a first loss for the hosts in the Kwibuka Women T20 Tournament on Tuesday, June 4.
The tournament has a decisive stage where every win counts as highly as a loss, reason being, only the top two teams will qualify to contest in Saturday's final.
Nothing has been decided yet, and Rwanda's chances remain in their hands but the scary bit is that Leornad Nhamburo's team need to beat Uganda in their next fixture on Wednesday at Gahanga International cricket stadium.
Uganda, who Rwanda beat in last year's final, leapfrogged the defending champions at the top the table standings, after their 8-wicket victory over Kenya.
Zimbabwe beat Botswana to move level on 16 points with Rwanda. Uganda has 20 points.
On Tuesday, Nigeria won the toss and opted to bat, scoring 104 for five wickets in 20 overs, and in reply, Rwanda were all out for 72 runs in 19 overs, falling short by 32 runs.
Only two Rwandan players scored in double figures, with captain Diane Bimenyimana, as she did against Kenya (53), again top scored for the hosts with 31 off 54 balls.
She also took 2 wickets for 24 runs in 4 overs. Merveille Uwase had 24 off 24, while Henriette Ishimwe only managed 9 off 8 balls.
On what was "just a poor day" for Rwanda in both innings, five batters were out for naught, including the golden ducks of Alice Ikuzwe and Belyse Murekatete.
Shimwa Mana (0-2), Umutoniwase (0-2) and Gisele Ishimwe (0-5), were the others who were not able to contribute runs to Rwanda's unsuccessful chase.
The Nigerians, you could say, have cracked the code to beating Rwanda, and they have now done that in the last four consecutive meetings.
Salome Sunday, ever dependable with bat for Nigeria, and coming to the crease at number 5, produced a game-changing spell of 29 off 12, including two 6s and four 4s.
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Anointed Akhigeb added 24 off 41, while Lucky Piety contributed 23 off 35 (not out) and also took for five runs in one over.
But the headline belonged, and rightly, to Ude, the Nigerian opening pace bowler, who entered Kwibuka T20 record books as the first to take six wickets in one match.
There has been a couple of five-wickets hauls, including three already this year, but not six wickets. This year, two Rwandans, Bimenyimana (5-3-4 vs Malawi) and Ikuzwe (5-12-3.3 vs Kenya).
Zimbabwe's Loryn Phiri became the third player to take a five-wickets haul, (5-15-3.2 vs Botswana)
So, was the defeat a cause for concern, going into, now, a crucial game against archrivals Uganda on Wednesday? Starting at 1:15pm CAT.
According to Rwanda head coach Nhamburo, "It's still two games left and we have lost one it doesn't mean it's the end."
It's not the end indeed, but another defeat on Wednesday, could be the proverbial 'spanner in the works' in terms of top two hopes.
Against a formidable Ugandan side, Rwanda will need to improve significantly, in both bowling and batting.
Asked, in what state does the loss to Nigeria leave the team ahead of Uganda clash, which comes a day before another really tough one against Zimbabwe on Thursday, Nhamburo was bullish, "There is no team that is tough here. It's just us today who played poorly."
Uganda remain the only unbeaten team in the competition after beating Kenya.
