Tuesday 19 Mar 2024

Shikha stars for Goa, hosts & Baroda qualify for Super League

Goa pacers rocked MP Top-order with line & length and movement off the pitch; while chasing Shikha stroked an unbeaten 55

BASIL SYLVESTER PINTO | JANUARY 18, 2018, 07:40 PM IST
Shikha stars for Goa, hosts & Baroda qualify for Super League


PANAJI

Goa and Baroda registered six-wicket wins in their final round engagements in the Senior Women’s Elite T20 (Group A) against MP and Bengal  respectively at the GCA Academy, Porvorim on Wednesday. With these results, both teams also qualified for the Elite Super League.

Goa was guided to another straight win by their captain Shikha Pandey who stroked an unbeaten 55 to help her team advance to the Super Elite T20 League. Meanwhile, in the other match, Baroda fashioned their fourth consecutive win with left-arm spinner, Radha Yadav’s three-star efforts being the highlight.  

In the first match of the day, Goa Women had to rely on their captain, Shikha Pandey leading from the front to see them qualify to the next stage with a few overs to spare against MP. 

Put into bat, MP posted a modest 75/5. The Goa new-ball attack of Shikha Pandey and Santoshi Rane made the most of the overcast conditions. Pandey had Kalpana Yadav plumb leg before off the very first ball of the match to provide the home side with an ideal start. Rane from the other end, returned to good form with the leather exploiting the moisture on the wicket to the hilt. The Goa pacers rocked the MP Top-order with line and length and movement off the pitch to have the opposition tottering at 21/4 midway through the 11th over. Rane by then had completed a dream spell with 2/7 with 20 dot balls. Fellow seamers, Pandey and Nikita Malik had chipped in with a wicket apiece. In the middle-order it was left to Pallavi Bharadwaj and captain Nidhi Buley to do a repair job. And they did a fine job to realize an exact 50 when Bharadwaj was run-out on a well-made 25 (34b, 2x4). Buley meanwhile did well to score an unbeaten 27 in 32 balls aided by three boundaries to take her side past the 100-mark. 

In reply, Goa Women lost an out of sorts, Sanjula Naik (3) at 16/1 in the fourth over. Sunanda Yetrekar followed suit without troubling the scorers to push Goa Women on the backfoot. Pandey meanwhile found in Nikita Malik an ally to take the score to 37 when Malik (4) fell victim to a run-out. Walking out to bat, wicket-keeper Vinavi Gurav (12) raised a significant fourth-wicket stand of 35 runs with her skipper to kill the contest. Pandey carried her bat second game running to guide her team home with an unconquered 55 (54b, 9x4) with 25 balls to spare and six wickets in hand.

In the MP attack, save for Tamanna Nigam who had striking returns of 2/6 from in four overs, none of the other bowlers seemed to trouble the Goa batters really. 

MP suffered a major blow ahead of the match with bowling all-rounder, Pooja Vastrakar who recently received an India call-up for the one-dayers in South Africa ruled out from the match due to high fever. 

In the afternoon match, Baroda Women overwhelmed Bengal women by six wickets to end Group A on a high unbeaten and winners. 

Electing to bat first, in a must win game and with NRR to come into play as well, Bengal could manage only 103/6 in their allotted 20 overs. The ever-consistent India international, Deepti Sharma made her fourth consecutive 40 plus score in the competition. Deepti went on to top-score with a run-a-ball 42 with three boundaries and a six to her name. In the Baroda attack, slow left arm bowler, Radha Yadav shone with 3/21 off her quota. 

With a target set of 104, the statisticians laid the math threadbare.  Baroda needed 86 as bare minimum to qualify along with Goa while Bengal had to restrict Baroda to 85 or less. But Baroda comfortably got over the line with six wickets in hand and three balls to spare. Palak Patel (36) and wicket-keeper Yastika Bhatia (31) were the principal scorers for the eventual winners in the run chase. 

Leggie Nisha Maji with 2/13 in four overs was the only spark in the Bengal attack. 

Goa Women along with Baroda (winners- Group A), Maharashtra (winners – Group B), and Delhi advance to the Super Elite stage to be played from January 23 in Mumbai. 

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