Railways looks the best bet

By S. Sabanayakan

JORHAT, MARCH 24. Indian Railways looks the best side to win the 24th Senior National Women's cricket tournament. The three-day final, which begins at the Jorhat Stadium from Saturday, will give challenger Air India another chance to deny the Railways the most coveted crown in women's cricket in the country.

History and form clearly point to a Railways win. Five solid batswomen in the top-order, depth and variety in bowling and keen all-round fielding, mark Railways' play. While Air India can match Railways in batting, its bowling lacks penetration and the fielding is sloppy. It will be difficult for Air India to dominate the game unless the Railways batting suffers a collapse.

Railways' opener Megha Gaud has aggravated her knee injury and has been replaced by Rajini Sharma. The other opener, Balvir Kaur is followed by veteran Rajini Venugopal who is in great touch. Hemlata Kala, Reshma Gandhi (wicket-keeper) and Rupanjali Shastri will lend solidity to the middle order.

The Railway pace attack, the best in the country, would be in the hands of international Renu Margaret and Sunita Kanojia and the spin department would be controlled by the wily Diana Edulji, Deepa Kulkarni, both left-armers, and Rupanjali. The toss up for the 11th slot is between batswoman Purnima Chowdhury and left-arm spinner Neetu David.

The way the two Air India openers, Anju Jain and Anjum Chopra, batted against Bihar in the semifinals, to put on 196 for the first wicket, should spell trouble to Railways. The one-drop, Mithali Raj, a classic front-foot player, is in good nick and skipper Purnima Rau, Mamatha Maben and the hard hitting Smitha Harikirshna, form the crux of the batting.

Air India is likely to go in with three spinners - off-spinners Purnia and Seema Pujari and left-arm spinner Usha Bogade. Smitha, Manuja Nadgouda, Shilpa Gundecha, Sunaina Mehan and Kusumlata are the pacers of which first three are likely to be fielded.

The game will also pit two former India captains against each other. Diana, at 44, should be the most experienced skipper. She understands the game well and is aggressive. On the other hand, Purnima is good but tends to allow the game to drift when under pressure.

The final will be of three-day duration with each team allotted 90 overs per innings. And on the final day each team will get 45 overs each to decide the match. In case the game fails to produce a decisive result, the first innings lead would decide the winner.

On Friday, Punjab took the third place beating Bihar by three wickets in the play-off game at the Gymkhana Ground. Opting to field, Punjab bundled out Bihar for 75 in 39.1 overs and after overcoming some early trouble managed to score 77 for seven in 38.2 overs.

The scores: Bihar 75 in 39.1 overs (Parvesh Sharma three for 13) lost to Punjab 77 for seven.

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