Nigeria on Friday in Kigali beat Brazil by 30 runs to finish fifth at the ongoing KwibukaT20 Cricket Tournament in Rwanda.

Earlier in the tournament, Nigeria were top of the log. But with only three wins in seven matches the team dropped down the table as they had to face Brazil again to jostle for fifth spot.

Nigeria had earlier beaten Brazil in their first game at the tournament by eight wickets and the game on Friday was no different.

Again, Nigeria won the toss and opted to bat. Efforts by Salome Sunday – 32 runs in 29 balls – and team captain Blessing Etim’s 27 runs in 30 balls helped Nigeria to secure victory against the South Americans.

Nigeria scored 113 runs for the loss of four in 20 overs. The second innings saw Brazil resume batting, scoring 83 for seven in 20 overs.

Luracadoso Martin Villas Boaz produced the best batting performance for the Brazilian side with 31 runs in 43 balls.

They ended up scoring 83 runs for the loss of seven in 20 overs for Nigeria to win by 30 runs.

At the end of the game, Etim, lauded her teammates’ efforts, adding that the team would go back home to the drawing board.

“I appreciate the players, we all worked together to achieve this. We will go home and work on our errors and come back stronger.

“I also appreciate Uyi Akpata, the president of Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), for his support. On behalf of the team, we say ‘thank you’,” Etim added.

On her part, Robertamoretti Avery, the captain of Brazil, also appreciated her team’s efforts and thanked the Rwanda Cricket Association (RCA) for Organising the event.

The tournament, which has eight teams participating, started on June 9 and is expected to end on Saturday.

On Saturday, Kenya will face Tanzania to decide the winners of the tournament while hosts Rwanda set up a clash against Uganda for the third-place match. The event is in memory of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

(NAN)