Nigeria eyes semi-finals spot at U-19 Cricket World Cup
Nigeria’s U-19 women’s cricket team coach, Sarah Bhakita, has set an ambitious goal for the 2025 ICC Women’s U-19 World Cup in Malaysia. Bhakita aims to lead the team to the semi-finals of the tournament, which will take place from January 18 to February 2, 2025.
Under Bhakita’s leadership, Nigeria secured Africa’s only spot in the tournament by defeating Zimbabwe in the regional qualifiers. This marks Nigeria’s second appearance at a cricket World Cup.
Bhakita has set her sights on reaching the Super 6 stage, which will determine the final four teams. She believes that with the team’s quality players, determination, and ambition, reaching the semi-finals is within their reach. “We have studied our opponents and no team is unbeatable,” she said.
The team has already completed two phases of training in Nigeria and is now in India at the OMTEX Cricket Institute for final preparations. They will play warm-up matches against Pakistan on January 13 and Scotland on January 15 before heading to Sarawak, Malaysia.
Bhakita is confident about the preparations, explaining that the team has been training since qualifying. Although the training has been intense at times, they took a short break and resumed in November. “We are just fine-tuning in India, as most of the work has already been done in Nigeria,” she added.
Nigeria has been drawn in the group stage against Samoa, South Africa, and New Zealand. Their World Cup campaign begins with a match against debutants Samoa at the Borneo Cricket Ground in Sarawak. They will then face New Zealand on January 20 and South Africa on January 22.
