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The match between
former Ibeju Lekki Cricket Club (ILCC), now BRF Cricket Club and
Government College Ibadan Old Boys Cricket Club (GCIOB) played at the
Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval lived up to its top of the table billing.
Though the two sides restricted each other to under 200 runs, there was
a lot of nerves, good play and excitement during the encounter.

GCIOB had set out
their stall in the first innings with a total of 180 runs all out while
the reply from the Old Boys was a feeble total of 99 runs all out.

The victory was
achieved on the back of a combination of great batting by Ademola
Onikoyi and outstanding bowling from Oyede Leke but it was also good
all round performance from Sean Philips’ men. Oyede Leke took five
wickets in six overs and also scored 27 runs. Akolade Saheed, Ogunlola
Joshua and Endurance Ofem added 1 wicket each to the total.

For GCIOB, Olayinka
Segun scored 21 runs and Onwuzulike Chemezie added another 21 but it
was not enough for the Old Boys. Seun Odeku, captain of GCIOB said “it
was just a bad day in the office.” Odeku was disappointed that having
curtailed the Ibeju-based team to 180 runs all out, his team failed to
capitalise. “It was 114 runs in 17 overs and we regrouped and
restricted them to 180 all out. At that point I thought we stood a good
chance to beat the defending league champions.”

‘We fell flat’

All that enthusiasm
quickly evaporated in the second innings when they were bowled out for
a measly 99 runs. Odeku continued: “We need to practise more as this
showed when we fell flat when we had the chance to beat BRF. Now the
players know that we have to change our training regimen so that we
will improve our fitness levels and make sure that whenever this kind
of favourable situation crops up again, we will be prepared to take due
advantage.”

This is GCIOB’s
second loss in the league and they will be very wary of losing again so
that they will not miss out on the Super 4 tournament at the end of the
season.

For GCIOB’S
Endurance Ofem, the game was tough but he is happy that they took all
the points, which maintained their status at the top of the log.

“It was a good
match though the score was low but that was on account of it been
between two tough teams. There was a lot of nerves out there but we
managed to get the job done and that is kudos to all the players
especially, Onikoyi, who scored 67 runs, all out. At the second water
break in the first innings, BRF had scored 137 Runs for 5 wickets in 34
overs. Oyede Leke had scored 15 runs, not out added to Onikoyi
Ademola’s 67 runs with Solebo Femi adding 9 runs. Ofem scored14 runs
while junior international, Behani Varun also added 9 runs.

At the end of the pulsating encounter, the defending champions won with a comfortable margin of 81 runs.