da esport bet： Central Zone eased past South Zone by seven wickets on the opening dayof the CricInfo Rani Jhansi tournament for women in Chennai at theIntegral Coach Factory ground
Sankhya Krishnan02-Apr-2000Central Zone eased past South Zone by seven wickets on the opening dayof the CricInfo Rani Jhansi tournament for women in Chennai at theIntegral Coach Factory ground. After being put in to bat South hadstarted confidently and were eyeing a useful score at 108/3 in the31st over but the Central spinners led by Bindeshwari Goyal pulled therug from under them as South collapsed to 137 all out. Centralopeners, Bharati Varma and Priyanka Sailey then put on an openingwicket stand of 73 and although both were sent off in quicksuccession, Central still had enough firepower to end the contest withfourteen overs to spare. Central keeper Arundhati had a satisfyingday, snapping up five catches behind the stumps and stroking an unbeaten 27that included four boundaries.Amsavalli and Karuna Jain opened the batting for South and in thefourth over of the day Neetu Singh struck first blood for Central whenshe sent back Karuna for a duck. Harsha came in at one drop with thescore at 10/1 but there was poor coordination between the twobatswomen in their running between the wickets and almost inevitablythe stand ended in a run out, with Amsavalli the victim. EarlierHarsha had scored the first two boundaries of the innings in the 10thover bowled by Tara. She seemed to be in a belligerent mood when shewas stumped by the keeper off Preeti for 32 (49 balls, 3 fours), whichturned out to be the highest score for South.The sun had come out in full splendour belying the weather office’sgloomy predictions of morning showers. Sudha Rani and Vinita Violathen put on a significant if not entirely convincing stand of 48 forthe fourth wicket. But after Sudha was caught at long on for 29 whenshe stepped to the pitch and drove Bindeshwari , South suffered aninexplicable collapse. Vinita too departed at 119, bowled by Preetiand the last six wickets fell for 18 as the innings folded up for 137in the penultimate over. Bindeshwari Goyal was the most successfulbowler for Central with her nagging offbreaks claiming 3-26 in tenovers. She was well supported by fellow spinners Preeti Dudhe andVarsha Raphael with two wickets each.Facing an asking rate of 2.76, Central openers Bharti Varma andPriyanka Sailey began their reply on a strong footing. But GSLakshmi, the South captain, threw everything into a desperate effortto derail Central. She bowled a torrid but luckless first spell inwhich Bharati was dropped in the slips, the ball actually goingthrough the slip cordon for three runs. Priyanka was also notcomfortable with Lakshmi medium pace stuff and popped one justout of reach of forward short leg. When Lakshmi came off after a firstspell of 6-1-15-0, the openers breathed easy. Priyanka was the moreresourceful of the two as she kept stepping out and lofting to long onalthough the thickish grass in that region of the outfield preventedthe ball from going all the way.Bharati patience finally snapped when she tried to swing one fromoff spinner Nooshien Al Kabir into the depths of the on side and got atopedge which was swallowed by Harsha at point. She had made 26 andCentral were 73/1. Nooshien struck again in her very next over,rearranging Priyanka’s stumps but not before she had made the matchtop score of 36 (64 balls, 2 fours). Central’s No.3, Chitra Bajpai,who has appeared in India colours, summoned all her experience andstemmed the breach with some fluent hitting. Chitra was bowled at 132,when Central were within one scoring stroke of victory, but RahulSingh then delivered the finishing stroke with a boundary tomidwicket.