Nigeria Content Online

The popular saying
that ‘form is temporary and class is permanent’ was exactly what
cricket enthusiasts in Nigeria witnessed at the 9th edition of Express
Discount Knockout Series Final, at the Tafawa Balewa Cricket oval which
saw defending champion, Government College Ibadan Old Boys (GCIOB)
Cricket Club, retained the trophy by beating Ibeju Lekki Cricket Club I
(ILCC1) by 21 runs to hand back to back defeats to their biggest rivals.

The Seun Odeku led
side won the toss and chose to bat first, scoring 203 runs in 40 overs
for loss of 9 wickets, with Adegbola Kunle, one of Nigeria’s team to
Guernsey in 2009, posting 60 runs off 88 balls in 133 minutes. He got
support from his fellow team mates, Gill Ramit and Okusanya Tayo, who
scored 38 runs and 32 runs respectively. Sean Phillips took 2 wickets
for 18 runs in 3 overs, while wicket -keeper for the national team,
Ademola Onikoyi, accounted for 3 run-out in the first innings for ILCC
I.

The second innings
was now for ILCC1 to reach the target of 203 runs target set by their
opponents. Adeoye Wale and Okusanya Tayo both took 4 wickets and 2
wickets respectively to reduce the champions of the regular season to
182 runs in 40 overs, for a loss of 9 wickets with Bejide Jide top
scoring with 49 runs, while the duo of Phillips Sean and Olympio Seye
both contributed 36 runs and 33 runs as they lost by 21 runs, which is
their second loss in a week.

The back to back
victories achieved by the Ibadan-based team in both finals of Iris
Smart Technology Super 4 and the 9th EDL knockout series, was a
testament to the fact that GCIOB are the closest rivals for the
Ibeju-based club.

Sunday’s final was
not all about good bowling, great batting, fantastic wicket keeping,
and superb fielding at the TBS oval, as outstanding players were
rewarded with various prizes.

The Cricketer of the series Award, which went to Gill Ramit of GCIOB, got $1,000.

Other awards were:

Man of the final
match: Tayo Okusanya, GCIOB; Bowler of the series: Bansal Sanjeev,
Indo-Pakistan Cricket Club (IPCC); Fieldsman of the series: Seun Odeku,
GCIOB; Wicketkeeper of the series: Nilesh Rajput, IPCC; Batsman of the
series: Friday Udoh, Federal Government College Warri Old Boy.

Attention will now shift to the GTASSUR 20/20 Tournament, which
enters the Quarter final and Semi final stage this weekend at the
University of Lagos Cricket Oval.