Nigeria Beat Uganda by 1 Run — Danladi's 47, Baguma's 4 for 21, Riazat's Five Sixes and a Title Decided by Two Run Outs

A T20 match is 240 balls long, and this one was decided by the length of a stride between the wickets, twice, in the last six of them. Nigeria and Uganda arrived at NCF Oval 1 on Sunday afternoon with four wins apiece, both already assured of a place in the 2027 Africa Regional Final, and the only thing left to settle was whose name goes on top of the Qualifier C table. Nigeria chose to bat, were 68 without loss and bowled out for 148 with two balls unused. Uganda were 21 for 2, then 99 for 3 on the back of Riazat Ali Shah's 60 off 36, and reached the final over needing six with three wickets in hand.

They scored four of them. Cyrus Kakuru was run out at 145 on the fourth ball, and Juma Miyagi was run out at 147 on the sixth. Nigeria won by 1 run. The hosts finish the group on ten points, five wins from five, as champions; Uganda, on eight, are runners-up, and both go forward to the Regional Final. On a week when Uganda had bowled out Mozambique for 19 and Gambia for under 30, and Nigeria had beaten Gambia by 160 runs, it is fitting that the two teams who had made everything look easy found each other hard.

Nigeria's innings had two halves that barely resembled each other. Selim Salau and Isaac Danladi put on 68 in 7.2 overs, Salau hitting four fours and a six in his 30 and Danladi clearing the rope four times in 47 off 28. Ali Rahmon kept the tempo with 35 off 23, three fours and two sixes, and at 91 for 3 after ten overs something near 170 was in view. Joseph Baguma had already removed Salau and Isaac Okpe; he then had Danladi caught by Sumeet Verma at 91 and Miracle Akhigbe caught by Waiswa for a two-ball duck at 103, and from 129 for 6 the last four wickets went for 19 runs. None of the eight batters outside Salau, Danladi and Rahmon reached double figures; the best of them was Ridwan Abdulkareem's 7. It was a total that looked 20 short.

What saved it was discipline, and a willingness to spread the overs: seven Nigerian bowlers were used. Abdullahi Ismail had both openers caught inside three overs, Raghav Dhawan by Isaac Okpe and Robinson Obuya by Danladi. When Riazat and Gerald threatened to take the game away, Sylvester Okpe struck twice in nine balls: Gerald caught by substitute P Aho at 99, Riazat bowled at 108. Isaac Okpe gave up 18 in four overs and took Waiswa lbw first ball at 117 and Ramjani at 143, the last wicket before the final over. Nigeria conceded only five extras all innings. Then, with six needed, Ali Rahmon ran out Kakuru, and Akachukwu and Sylvester Okpe combined to run out Miyagi off the last ball. Fielding does not get a column on the scorecard, and this time it decided the title.

Uganda will replay the last over for a while, and they should not let it hide how well they played the first 39. Joseph Baguma's 4 for 21 took the two openers, Isaac Okpe and Akhigbe, four of Nigeria's top five, and turned 91 for 3 into a scramble. Juma Miyagi bowled Sylvester Okpe and Akachukwu in his 2 for 17. Where Uganda leaked was in the middle: Ramjani's four overs went for 43 and Waiswa's for 40, and those 83 runs are roughly the difference between a chase of 149 and a chase of 110.

The reply started badly, 21 for 2 in the third over, and then Riazat Ali Shah played the innings of the day. Sixty off 36, three fours and five sixes, in a stand of 78 with Olipa Gerald, whose 18 off 22 was exactly the supporting role the moment asked for. At 99 for 3 with 49 balls left, Uganda needed 50 and were favourites. Riazat was bowled by Sylvester Okpe at 108; Sumeet Verma, caught by Danladi, and Kenneth Waiswa, lbw to Isaac Okpe, followed within 13 balls, and 41 needed from 40 with six wickets became 32 from 27 with four. Alpesh Ramjani, 20 off 18, and Cyrus Kakuru, 11 off 11, put on 26 to get it to six off the last over. They had done enough to win. They did not, and the fairest thing to say is that a side that had been tested by nobody all week found, in the final six balls, the one thing a 19-all-out win cannot teach you.

The last over is where the scorecard says it ended, but the game turned across 13 balls spanning the 14th to the 16th overs. Uganda were 108 for 4 at 13.2 overs when Riazat was bowled by Sylvester Okpe, having hit five sixes and looked set for a hundred. Verma was caught by Danladi off Akachukwu at 116, and Waiswa was lbw to Isaac Okpe first ball at 117 in the 16th. Three wickets for nine runs, and the two batters who had been doing the scoring were replaced by two who had to start again. Ramjani and Kakuru's 26-run stand was brave, but it had to be built from nothing, and it took 21 balls to get Uganda to 143. That left six to get from the last over, and six is a number that invites a run; two of them ended in run outs.

Isaac Danladi was the game's most complete cricketer. His 47 off 28 balls, three fours and four sixes, was the heart of a 68-run opening stand with Salau that gave Nigeria a platform, and when he was caught by Verma off Baguma at 91 in the tenth over, the innings fell away without him. In the field he took two catches, Robinson Obuya off Abdullahi Ismail in the third over to leave Uganda 21 for 2, and Sumeet Verma off Akachukwu at 116, the second of the three wickets that turned the chase. In a match won by a single run, a batter who scored nearly a third of his side's total and then removed two of the opposition's top six made the award an easy one.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we'll have full analysis for the next encounter.

Nigeria and Uganda move on to the 2027 Africa Regional Final, and both leave Abuja knowing exactly what the other can do. Nigeria's openers and Ali Rahmon can set a total; the question is whether the lower order, which lost seven for 57 on Sunday, can protect one. Their bowling and fielding need no apology. Uganda have in Baguma a bowler who can run through a top order and in Riazat a batter who can win a game on his own, and they came within a run of beating the hosts at home. The lesson is in the last over: the Regional Final will have tighter finishes than this group did, and the ones who run well under pressure will be the ones who go through. Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Gambia are out; Nigeria, unbeaten, are Qualifier C champions.