The on-going International Cricket Council (ICC) Under 19 Men’s Cricket World Cup Africa Division 2 Qualifiers in Abuja enters the crucial stage with t the semi-final battles at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja.
Nigeria will be looking to hold down Malawi for an easy run to the finals at the Pitch 2. Malawi qualified on the back of Ghana and Mozambique’s last minutes pull out to leave them as an automatic qualifier despite looking their only group match to Kenya.
Nigeria, has had a three-match victory run with Rwanda, Botswana and Sierra Leone that makes them an easy favourite for the final spot.
Coach Daniel Gim of Nigeria said that his team will be ready for the encounter after Tuesday’s tough tie with Sierra Leone which Nigeria won with six runs.
“The match stretched out batters and it was interesting because we now can see areas that our players need to tighten up on,” Gim said.“The first two matches between Rwanda and Botswana left them untried until Sierra Leone came. However, we have identified and worked our teams for the Semi-finals and we will be filling out against Malawi better than at any time.”
The second semi-finals match is between Kenya and Sierra Leone.
Coming from the loss to Nigeria, the Sierra Leoneans will be looking to make good their opportunity to proceed to the finals stage and an assured qualification to the Division 1 of the World Cup Qualifier.
Ali John Kamara who said his team were shell-shocked to have lost their last match to Nigeria, believed the only compensation for the bravery and discipline his team has shown so far is to beat Kenya today.
The two winners of the Semi-final encounters are automatically drawn bye for the Division 1 World Cup Qualifier while the losers with have to vie for the third available ticket to proceed to the next stage for qualification for the 2024 ICC Under 19 Men’s Cricket World Cup.