Nigeria’s U-19 cricket national team suffered defeat in their opening game of the 2020 ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup.
The West Africans went down by 10 wickets to Australia in the Group B encounter at the Diamond Oval in Kimberly, South Africa.
Nigeria elected to bat first after winning the toss. Runsewe Suleimon and Miracle Ikaigbe opened the batting for the team and after two balls, Suleimon was out.
The Junior Yellow Greens, as Nigeria’s U-19 cricket national team are fondly called, were 12 runs for the loss of three wickets in five overs and after 10 overs were 28 runs for the loss of three wickets.
This was Nigeria’s first defeat after a run of ten consecutive matches without tasting defeat, dating back to 2018.
Australia had Tanveer Sangha as their star performer with an impressive haul of five wickets for 14 runs in 10 overs with four maidens in the process.
Australia finished the match with 10 wickets intact scoring 62 runs.
The result means Nigeria are bottom of the group with Australia, who had lost their opening match to the West Indies on Friday taking top spot.
Nigeria who picked the sole ticket from the African zone qualifiers, have been placed in a difficult group with Australia, West Indies and England.
They will take on West Indies in their second group game on Wednesday.