Cricket: Nigeria ready for U-19 W’Cup after Scotland test

Nigeria’s female U-19 cricket team, the Junior Female Yellow Greens, will play their second and final warm-up game ahead of the 2025 ICC Women’s U-19 World Cup against Scotland on Wednesday (today) in Malaysia, setting the tone for their debut World Cup match against Samoa on Saturday.

The Scotland friendly is billed for the Royal Selangor Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 7:30 am local time. Nigerians will however wake up to the result of the game which comes up at 30 minutes past midnight.

It comes two days after Nigeria came pretty close to beating the eighth-ranked Pakistan in their first warm-up game at UKM Cricket Oval in Bangi.  Scotland were also thumped by 119 runs in the hands of India during their first warm-up game.

After Wednesday’s warm-up game, the Junior Female Yellow Greens will then turn their attention to the World Cup proper where they will hope to make a statement in Group C at the Borneo Cricket Ground, Kuching, Sarawak in Malaysia.

The Sarah Bhakita-led girls will hope to build on their performances, one of which saw Victory Igbinedion deliver an excellent 46 runs from 57 balls as Nigeria finished on 94 for six in pursuit of 105 runs against Pakistan just as team captain Lucky Piety also got two wickets.

“The mentality we had going into the World Cup qualifiers was that of a champion. We said we were going to play cricket and not just countries or names and we were ready to compete. Nothing has changed, it is even more intense,” Captain Piety told our correspondent.

“This is the World Cup, it’s no longer the qualifiers. In our way, we have prepared and the federation has made sure we are ready. We are combining all of these attitudes to bring pride to Nigeria.”

After Samoa, they face fellow debutants Samoa in their first game on Saturday, January 18, before filing out against New Zealand in their second game of the tournament on Monday, January 20 and South Africa in the last group game two days later.

The Women’s U-19 World Cup will mark Nigeria’s second appearance at any cricket World Cup, six years after the men’s U-19 team also qualified for the 2019 edition in South Africa.