Lucky Piety, a teenage starlet from South-South took the central stage during the National Finals of the Under-17 Girls Cricket Championship after leading her team to victory at the Edo Boys High School Cricket Oval rising from her record-breaking century at the opening game against South-West.
She became the first Nigerian cricketer to achieve such a feat in a T-20 match after her commanding performance at the closing event.
Uyi Akpata, Vice President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation who was in attendance remarked that beyond the excellent performance of the South-south team who won all their three matches at the finals of the girls’ tournament, the Federation was more impressed at the individual talents that were thrown up at the championship for the global stage in the future.
Uyi said, “When a teenager sets a national T20 record, that is a great achievement and huge leap for cricket development.
“We also had great fielding implementation from the South-east team and great bowling actions from a couple of players too. The good thing here is that beyond Piety Lucky, we have a number of a great shows by players from other regions as well. We are proud of the developments from the different regions.
“Performances from these girls have justified the investment in various grassroots developments at different regions of the country and more importantly, we have great players that can be drafted into camp ahead of national assignments,” enthused the NCF Vice President.
Piety was awarded the Best “Batman’, and the Most Valuable Player of the girls’ championship. Rejoice Assam was the Bowler of the series with Uba Herrieta voted the Best Fielder.
With much more to look forward to, the Boys’ final of the National Under 17 Cricket Championship will hold from February 4th to 7th at the Edo Boys High School Cricket Pitch having seen off the female category.
