Equal partners: India-A’s Sahana, Anjali, Amanjot and Saika bagged two wickets apiece.
| Photo Credit: P.K. Ajith Kumar
They hunted as a pack.
Fine spells from medium-pacers Anjali Sarvani and Amanjot Kaur and spinners Sahana Pawar and Saika Ishaque, who shared eight wickets evenly among them, not just brought the high-flying India-D to the ground in a Women’s T20 Challenger match here on Thursday, but took India-A to the final.
In the final to be played on Saturday, the two teams will come face to face once again. India-B’s exciting four-wicket win – with just a ball to spare – against India-C wasn’t enough. In the three-way tie, India-D and India-A had better net run rates.
India-C lost all its matches, but it may have fancied its chances after posting 140 for six, a more-than-decent total. A fine, fighting knock from Devika Vaidya (41 n.o., 27b, 6×4), however, dashed those hopes.
Left-arm seamer Komal Zanzad had struck twice in her second over – her first victim was the dangerous Shafali Verma – to derail India-B’s chase at the beginning. But, useful knocks from skipper Deepti Sharma (26, 18b) and Humaira Kazi (20, 20b) kept their side very much in the game.
Then Nishu Choudhary (24, 15b) lent excellent support to Devika as the pair added 36 crucial runs for the sixth wicket. Two runs were required off the last two balls when wicketkeeper Tania Bhatia hit Saranya Gadwal for a couple over the packed in-field on the off-side.
The scores:
India-D 92 in 19.4 overs (Ashwani Kumari 31, Sneh Rana 23 n.o., Anjali Sarvani 2/11, Sahana Pawar 2/17, Saika Ishaque 2/8, Amanjot Kaur 2/7) lost to India-A 95/3 in 18.1 overs (Nuzhat Parween 24, Shivali Shinde 27, Muskan Malik 20 n.o.).
India-C 140/6 in 20 overs (S. Meghana 26, Priya Puniya 27, Pooja Vastrakar 27, Simran Shaikh 32, Deepti Sharma 3/39, Arudhanti Reddy 3/28) lost to India-B 141/6 in 19.5 overs (Deepti 26, Humaira Kazi 20, Devika Vaidya 41 n.o., Nishu Choudhary 24, Komal Zanzad 2/17, Pooja Vastrakar 2/33).