Nigeria’s U-19 women’s cricket team captain, Lucky Piety, has said the Junior Female Yellow Greens are on a mission to impress and make the country proud at the 2025 ICC Women’s U-19 World Cup which begins in Malaysia on Saturday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The Junior Female Yellow Greens are among the four debutants at the tournament which will be played from Saturday, January 18 to February 2.
Nigeria came through the Africa Qualifier to reach the ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup for the first time, following in the footsteps of Rwanda, who qualified for the inaugural edition.
“Our team’s main objective is to compete and aim for the highest goal in the tournament,” Piety told ICC Media Zone.
“Personally, this is an opportunity to play on a big stage and perform my best, not only for the benefit of the team but also for myself and Nigeria. Our ultimate aim is to make our country proud and leave a lasting legacy in the tournament.”
In their first warm-up game before the tournament, the Sarah Bhakita-led side put on a great show, but they lost by 11 runs against Pakistan, who are ranked eighth in the world.
Piety starred in the first innings, getting two wickets while opening batter Victory Igbinedion also posted 46 runs from 57 balls during Nigeria’s innings before she was caught by Zoofishan Quratulain in the seventeenth over.
Nigeria will next face Scotland on Wednesday in their second warm-up game in Bangi Town, Malaysia, before moving to Sarawak, the venue of their group stage matches.
Their first World Cup game comes up against Samoa on January 18.
They will face test nation New Zealand in their second game of the tournament on Monday, January 20 and South Africa in the last group game two days later.
The Women’s U-19 World Cup will mark Nigeria’s second appearance at any cricket World Cup, six years after the men’s U-19 team also qualified for the 2019 edition in South Africa.