Nigeria win North West African Championships

Nigeria have won the second North West African Championships following a narrow one-wicket win over their arch-rivals, Sierra Leone, in the final match of the five-nation tournament in Lagos on Thursday.

Endurance Ofem, named Player of the Series, guided Nigeria home with 39 as Nigeria overhauled Sierra Leone's 142, despite Lansana Lamin's 4 for 20 from his 10 overs. Ofem also scored the tournament's only century.

Hopes the tournament will expand past its British Commonwealth roots were dashed for this year by the withdrawal of Cameroon and Morocco. Eventually it is intended to include Egypt and Libya.

It was a typical tournament of West African national teams with the usual finishing order of Nigeria first, Sierra Leone second, Ghana finishing third and Gambia fourth.

Mali, the former French colony, was the fifth team, clearly still in its learning phase, with team totals of 12, 24, 151 and 15.

Tony Munro