Delhi makes Air India sweat

By S. Sabanayakan

JORHAT, MARCH 20. Delhi was not expected to put it across a powerful Air India team in the quarterfinals of the 24th senior National women's cricket tournament. Yet, a bunch of enthusiastic girls made the seasoned Air India players sweat before going down by eight wickets at the Jorhat Stadium here on Monday.

Punjab and Bihar moved into the quarterfinals with contrasting wins. Punjab eliminated the host Assam by winning the game by ten wickets and Bihar sent Madhya Pradesh packing with a seven-wicket victory.

Punjab will now take on Bengal in a quarterfinal game on Tuesday while Bihar will challenge third-place winner in last Nationals at Pune, Andhra Pradesh, in the other quarterfinal. The holder Indian Railways will meet Uttar Pradesh, which is yet to arrive, in tomorrow's third last eight game.

This morning, the inaugural ceremony planned by the Assam women's Cricket Association began almost an hour behind schedule owing to late arrival of chief guest. This forced the games to begin 90 minutes late and all the matches were reduced to 40-over-a-side affair.

Delhi won the toss and opted to bat first and straight away exposed the bowling limitations of Air India. The medium pace and later the spin attack lacked the sharpness normally associated with a top side as left-handed opener Jaya Sharma (35, 77 balls, 4x4) and Reema Malhotra (51, 72 balls, 6x4) enabled Delhi end at 179 for eight in 40 overs. Medium pacer Manju Nadgoda picked up two for 30.

Air-India opener Anju Jain left early taken behind to put the team under pressure. Left-handed opener Anjum Chopra and Mithali Raj joined forces to overcome the initial hiccup before settling down to put their team on way to victory.

Anjum, comfortable with shots square off the wicket, remained unbeaten on 82 (76b, 11x4) and Mithali hit up 58 (50b, 8x4, 1x6) to steer their team to victory with 4.5 overs to spare.

Air-India conceded 27 wides and its ground fielding was ordinary. Skipper Purnima Rau promised a stormy team meeting tonight.

Rupa Begum's 33 (89b, 5x4) was the lone highlight of the Assam's innings as it folded up in 32.5 overs. Spinner Sandeep Kaur took four for nine off eight overs. Punjab came out blazing with Gulshan Kaur 59 not out and Anjuman Bassi 21 not out to win in 11.1 overs.

Bihar won the toss at the Gymkhana ground and put MP into bat on a pitch devoid of the mat. As the team arrived late for the match, the umpires started the game when the organisers failed to ready the mat. Fine bowling by Seema Singh (two for nine) and Sanjida Praveen (two for eight) meant MP was dismissed for 99 in 32.5 overs. Despite Preeti Dubey (three for 19) and Rebati Joshi (two for 33) getting among wickets, Neetu Singh (29) and Geet Samantarao (23) ensured a Bihar victory.

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