Kenya secured a decisive victory over Nigeria in the opening match of the T20I series, highlighted by Sachin Bhudia's standout performance.
Kenya dominated Nigeria to secure a 30-run victory in the opening match of the Kenya-Nigeria Bilateral series at Nairobi's Sikh Union on Friday.
The hosts set a challenging target of 159 for 6, anchored by Sachin Bhudia's notable innings of 50 runs.
Nigeria faced a tough task chasing down the target and managed 130 for 9 in their allotted overs. Nigerian skipper Sylvester Okpe stood out among their bowlers, claiming 3 wickets for 22 runs.
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Kenya's bowling attack proved equally formidable, with Shem Ngoche, Peter Koech, and Gerald Mwendwa each picking two scalps. Prosper Useni offered some resistance for Nigeria, top-scoring with 31 runs.
Winning the toss, Kenya opted to bat first and set a challenging target with six wickets in hand. Bhudia continued from where he left off in the just-concluded Kenya Quad T20 series, once again emerging as the standout performer with the bat, scoring a crucial 50 runs, which came from the final ball of the innings.
Despite a rocky start that saw early dismissals, Kenya managed to stabilize their innings, thanks to notable contributions from Neil Mugabe (28) and Nelson Odhiambo (20). Later in their innings, Bhudia combined with Shem Ngoche (13) and Jasraj Kundi (21) to steer Kenya towards a competitive total of 159 runs.
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Skipper Sylvester Okpe was a standout performer for Nigeria with the ball, capturing three crucial wickets for 22 runs, but it wasn't enough to prevent Kenya from securing a convincing 30-run victory.
In response, Nigeria faced a tough challenge as the Kenyan bowlers, particularly the spinners, made significant breakthroughs at crucial intervals.
By the seventh over, Nigeria found themselves struggling at 46 for 4. It took the efforts of skipper Okpe (29) and Prosper Useni (31) to hold up Nigeria’s innings and guide them past the 100-run mark in the 17th over. Apart from Okpe, Useni, Selimi Salau (26), and Peter Aho (13), the rest of Nigeria's batting lineup couldn't get into double digits.
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The series continues on Saturday with the second match at the same venue from 1:30 pm EAT.