Nigeria, May 23 -- With the stakes rising at the 22nd National Sports Festival, tagged Gateway Games 2024, host state Ogun delivered a cricketing masterclass on Thursday as both their male and female teams secured semifinal berths in the T20 format of the competition.

At the cricket grounds, the male side, led by national team star and skipper Sesan Adedeji, bounced back from a technical loss to Team Kaduna earlier in the week with a dominant nine-wicket victory over Team Zamfara. The Ogun boys cleaned out Zamfara for 73 runs in 20 overs during the first innings before racing to 74/1 in just 5 overs to seal the emphatic win.

The win not only kept Ogun in contention but confirmed their spot in the semifinals, with the possibility of a hi...