da bet nacional： North Zone captain Rajini Bhalla played a matchwinning knock of 54 notout (92 balls) to marshal her side to a thrilling two wicket victoryover Central Zone in the CricInfo Rani Jhansi tournament at the MAChidambaram Stadium in Chepauk today
Sankhya Krishnan07-Apr-2000North Zone captain Rajini Bhalla played a matchwinning knock of 54 notout (92 balls) to marshal her side to a thrilling two wicket victoryover Central Zone in the CricInfo Rani Jhansi tournament at the MAChidambaram Stadium in Chepauk today.After Central had run up an extremely competitive total of 193/9thanks to a typically aggressive knock from wicketkeeper ArundhatiKirkire, North were facing a sticky situation at 140/6 after 40overs. Rajini displayed ice cold nerves under pressure and the tideturned with a 31 run seventh wicket stand that she compiled with SeemaWadhwa. The equation boiled down to nine in eleven balls with twowickets in hand and No. 10 Sandeep Saini struck the winning runs offthe fourth ball of the last over. All the North players raced onto thefield to cheer the two gladiators and especially Rajini who had,earlier in the match, delivered a tidy bowling spell of 1-18 in eightovers with her leg breaks.After Central won the toss and elected to bat, openers Bharati Vermaand Priyanka Sailey laid a strong foundation with a 59 runpartnership. The North bowlers were a bit indisciplined to begin withas five wides and two no balls were gifted by Vandna Gupta and AshaJain in the first two overs. Bharati was off the blocks in the fourthover with a couple followed by a boundary to mid wicket off Asha. Thescoreboard was kept ticking away efficiently with singles being takento fielders on the edge of the circle. Sandeep Saini was given theball in the 12th over which went for 10 runs including a Bharatiboundary to backward square leg.The 50 came up off 12.2 overs but nine runs later Priyanka knockedSeema Wadhwa to Rajini Bhalla at mid off for 17. Two overs later,Bharati also departed, run out by Raakhee at short mid wicket, afterbeing sent back by Arundhati. Her 29 (49 balls) included three hits tothe fence. Chitra Bajpai and Arundhati now put on another profitableassociation of 55 runs in 13.2 overs. Arundhati laid into the haplessSeema in the 24th over with a straight driven boundary and a secondfour to wide long on.The hundred came up in the 28th over and Central were well on theirway to batting their opponents out of the game. Arundhati cut Vandnaaway to the square third man fence but in the same over the bowlercame back well to knock Chitra’s leg stump clean out of the ground.Preeti Dudhe came in with the score at 117/2 and got a fortuitousboundary through an Asha Jain misfield at mid on after she had ondriven a well pitched up delivery from Reema. Asha did not have to ruethat miss for long as Preeti gave a tame catch to Gulshan at squareleg in the same over.Off spinner Anjuman Bassi then snapped up two more wickets in quicksuccession as Seema Sinha was leg before for a second ball duck andVarsha Reffal skied one into the hands of Jaya at long on. Arundhaticarried on serenely, getting to her 50 off 65 balls with a pull oversquare leg for four and after her dismissal in the 46th over, Centralfinally settled for a total of 193. Reema Malhotra’s flighted legbreaks were successful albeit expensive, with figures of 3-51 whilefellow spinner, Anjuman Bassi (2-26 off 10) had a rather moreniggardly analysis.Raakhee Mehra and Jaya began North’s reply on a confident footing withRaakhee being especially strong square of the wicket on the off side,playing several sizzling square cuts to backward point and squarethird man. Jaya got a couple of boundaries herself before beingtrapped leg before on the backfoot by Leena Muley to leave the scoreat 25/1 in the eighth over. Raakhee had a close shave in the 11th overwhen Varsha threw down the stumps from cover as she tried to steal asingle. But umpire Sumathi Iyer was not in position and had no optionbut to give the batswoman the benefit of doubt.Spinners Bindeshwari Goyal and Preeti Dudhe were soon brought on asNorth reached the 50 mark in the 14th over. Gurdeep Kaur was givingRajini good support as the two raised a 43 run second wicketassociation but Varsha Raffel, returning for her second spell, did thedamage by having Raakhee caught by Arundhati behind the sticks for 42(54 balls, 4 fours). Captain Rajini Bhalla, walking in at 68/2, wasleft to survey the ruins as Gurdeep too departed without any additionto the score, giving Bindeshwari a c&b. Rajini and the uniquelyhelmeted Gulshan Sharma cajoled the score to 96 before the latterplayed a lofted drive off Rahul Singh straight to midwicket. Thehundred came up in the 28th over and Rajini and Reema Malhotra inchedNorth closer to the target but Central still seemed to have the matchunder control until the arrival of Seema Wadhwa and the absorbingclimax.