Oyo state wins South-West U-19 cricket

Oyo state on Saturday defeated Lagos to emerge the winner of the third edition of the South-West U-19 Cricket Tournament tagged “Jide Bademosi Cup“ at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium.

With the victory, Oyo successfully defended her title.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Oyo state won by 125 runs for six wickets in 20 overs, while Lagos had 107 runs for seven wickets in 20 overs.

In the third place was Ogun who had defeated Osun. Ogun scored 57 runs for three wickets in 7.2 overs, while Osun had 56 runs in 19.3 overs. Ogun won by seven wickets.

NAN reports that both teams met in the finals of the 2nd edition in 2020 and due to COVID-19 the tournament couldn’t hold in 2021.

Kayode Komolafe, captain, Oyo state, said it wasn’t an easy win as both teams competed keenly.

Komolafe said that team work and dedication made them win.

“Lagos is a strong contender, it wasn’t an easy one. We both fought hard to win but I’m happy we won it. We always meet them at the finals,” he said.

Johnson Idakwo, the Oyo state coach, said he’s very happy and proud of the cricketers for the win.

Idakwo said that they played according to instructions and this was instrumental for the win.

“This final is yet another narrow escape like the last edition. Lagos has a solid team, we did a study and analysis about them to understand how they play in order to beat them. We took their speed, technicality and all into consideration and this gave us the win,” he said.

Ingram Jones, the Head Coach of Lagos, said that his boys played well but lost to a better side.

Jones said that no team wanted to lose but that there could only be one winner.

“My team played well and I give them the credit, they took brilliant catches. They created so many pressures and it can only get better. We observed a few things and these will be worked upon,” he said.

The batsman of the series was awareded to Abdullareem Ridwan of Lagos, bowler of the series was given to Omotayo Oridota while the wicket-keeper of the series was Lukman Kofoworola of Oyo state.

Each of the recipients received N10,000; Oyo state got a trophy for emerging winner and each of the states got N100,000 for participating.

NAN reports that the tournament was sponsored by Energy and Mineral Resources Mining and featured the six states in the South-West. The competition kicked-off on March 2. (NAN)