da betobet： Hemalatha helped Indian Railways to a comfortable seven wicket winwith 9.3 overs to spare against South Zone in the CricInfo Rani JhansiTrophy women’s tournament at the Southern Railway ground in Chennai onWednesday
da dobrowin： Natarajan Sriram05-Apr-2000Hemalatha helped Indian Railways to a comfortable seven wicket winwith 9.3 overs to spare against South Zone in the CricInfo Rani JhansiTrophy women’s tournament at the Southern Railway ground in Chennai onWednesday. This was the fourth straight defeat for South Zone in thetournament.Having to score 170 for a win, Railways started in real earnest whenopeners Balvir Kaur and Purnima Choudary. Though Balvir thrashed twoconsecutive square cuts in the first over, she was adjudged leg beforeto Swarnalaxmi at the score of 16 in the fourth over. Rajni Venugopaljoined Purnima but the partnership did not last long. Purnima wascaught behind off Mamta in the ninth over while trying to steer theball to backward square leg.Purnima’s dismissal brought together Rajni and Hemalatha. Both werelooking to play their shots, especially Hemalatha. They chose theballs to be hit and never hesitated to run the singles hard. But Rajniin a rare misjudgement, found herself short of the crease when Mamtathrew the stumps down with a direct hit.Shyama now joined Hemalatha in a fruitful partnership. They added anunbeaten 101 runs for the fourth wicket in 24.1 overs. The two puttheir heads down and steered the score to 109 at the second drinksbreak in the 27th over. Hemalatha was more sensible in the selectionof her shots and her placement than Shyama who was moreflamboyant. But the two in tandem were more than a handful for themediocre South Zone attack. During the last stretch, Shyama tried tofinish off in style by hitting two crisply struck boundaries.Earlier, South put up a poor batting display. Openers Vanita and SudhaRani started their innings by conceding a maiden. With a predominantlyoff side field, the Railways bowlers Sunita and Umesh bowled far toomany balls down the leg side. But the openers were not able tocapitalise on this. Vanita was willing to go for her shots but all shecould find were the Railways’ fielders.The twelfth over saw a double change in the bowling as off-spinnerRupanjali and left arm-spinner Neetu David replaced Sunita andUmesh. They struck a good line and length and restricted the Southopeners to mostly singles. At the first drinks break after the 19thover, both Neetu and Rupanjali had conceded only eleven runs in eightovers between them. Soon after the drinks break, the openers tried toget out of the rut and tried making some lofted shots. But that speltdisaster as South soon lost Vanita when she mistimed a drive andspooned an easy catch to Shyama Shah at point.The entry of Karuna saw some good running between the wickets. Theystarted to take some good singles, peppered with boundary hits. Aftera good spell of bowling by the two spinners Neetu (1 for 19 in 10overs) and Rupanjali (none for 20 in 10 overs) Diana replaced Neetuand continued in the same vien. In the 35th over Diana had Karuna legbefore, when she was starting to look good.After holding the South inings together during a fine innings of 52,Sudha was run out in the 39th over. Her departure prompted both Harshaand Manjula to go for some risky running between the wickets and itwas only a matter of time before both of them were dismissed. Towardsthe closing stages of the innings, South did make an attempt to stepup the scoring rate but instead they lost wickets in a flurry. Thelast ten overs saw 55 runs being scored but for the loss of eightwickets. The innings folded up in the 50th over at the score of170. There were six run outs, ample proof of the fine performance byIndian Railways on the field.
