By Akanimo Kufre
Nigeria’s courage and desire to play in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2026 was tested on Sunday in Harare, where the Yellow Greens failed by 117 runs, thanks to Jan Frylinck.
Nigeria’s captain, Sylvester Okpe, went for the toss with good luck but decided to field first. When hostilities began for the Africa Qualifiers series, Isaac Okpe, the captains elder brother, took Namibia’s openers wicket in the 5th over. Malan Kruger scored only 11 runs but later became proud of his mate.
Krueger’s opening partner, Jan FryLinck, became a thorn in the flesh for the Nigerian Men’s Cricket team. FryLinck scored an astonishing 134 runs from 65 balls. A sigh of relief came for Nigeria when FryLinck was finally dismissed through a combined effort of Isaac Danladi and Sulaimon Runsewe at 15.5 overs. But the damage was done!
While FryLinck hit the boundary 21 times, his counterparts, Louren Steenkamp, contributed 51 runs. With a few other batters, Namibia’s total score was 235 runs and lost 6 wickets at the end of 20 overs.
The second inning was a long road for Nigeria’s batters. Opener, Sulaimon Runsewe gave his best 28 runs before he was dismissed through LBW ( leg before wicket) at 10.1 overs. Captain Okpe contributed 24 runs and was caught by Nicol Loftie-Eaton.
Nigeria’s total score was 118 runs at the end of 20 overs with a loss of 9 wickets. While Nigeria cleaned up the dust of defeat, Jan FryLinck received the Player of the Match Award for his outstanding batting performance – 15 fours and 6, sixes.
Captain Sylvester Okpe observed that Nigeria’s bowling was not executed as planned against the more disciplined Namibian batters. The younger Okpe said his team however got valuable lessons from the game to prosecute the next challenge.
The West African cricket powerhouse are still in the contest as they will play against Coach Steve Tikolo’s Kenya on 30th September 2025 in Takashinga Sports Club, Harare.
