Central Zone comfortably beat East Zone by seven wickets in theCricInfo Rani Jhansi tournament at the SRMC ground in Chennaitoday
Sankhya Krishnan05-Apr-2000Central Zone comfortably beat East Zone by seven wickets in theCricInfo Rani Jhansi tournament at the SRMC ground in Chennaitoday. After knocking over East for just 93 in the 45th over, Centralcoasted home with their reply revolving around an unbeaten 40 (65balls) from keeper Arundhati Kirkire. She also effected threedismissals behind the sticks besides completing two run outs andsurely must be a cinch to be selected in the World Cupprobables. Bindeshwari Goyal’s spell of 3-11 had created the openingfor Central in the first place. And spare a thought for SabariMukherjee who took two stunning catches, off her own bowling, thatwould have done Jonty Rhodes proud.East won the toss and elected to bat with captain Pratima Chakrabortiand Neetu Singh opening the innings. Things began brightly for them asNeetu straight drove Varsha to the boundary in the second over of theday. The score had mounted steadily to 15 in the fifth over beforeCentral captain Leena Muley bowled Neetu with one that took the top ofoff stump as she played inside the line.Chandrabarti Paul arrived at the crease and immediately found the gapson either side of the wicket for a couple of twos. But in the verynext over, a dreadful mixup with Pratima saw her depart withoutfurther addition. Pratima played to point, both ran, both stopped, andthen continued on their way. Ranjana Gupta fired in a good throw tothe keeper, finding Chandrabarti short of her ground. With thefielders at mid on, mid off, covers and mid wicket on the edge of thecircle, Pratima and Kavita Roy were able to take singles to theseregions without discomfort.But disaster was lurking round the corner when Pratima pulled one tosquare leg, who was a little closer. Bindeshwari’s throw was too goodfor Kavita as the batswomen scrambled frantically for a run. Two ballslater, without any addition to the score, Pratima swept one into thehands of Bharati Verma at squareleg to make it 29/4 in the 12th over.Two new players, Geeta Samanta Ray and Rashmita Mohanty, were nowfacing a Central attack with their tails up.Both lived dangerously with Rashmita hitting the ball uppishly into nowoman’s land between square leg and midwicket and Geeta being droppedby Priyanka at mid on off Bindeshwari. Rahul Singh’s left arm tweakersdid the job for Central Zone, trapping Rashmita lbw on the backfootwhen she tried to pull one that was a bit too full for the stroke.The score was now 37/5 and in the next over (the 18th) it became 38/6as Geeta tamely drove a half volley straight back to the bowlerBindeshwari.Just seven runs came in the following nine overs, as Saswati Mukherjeeand Rumeli Dhar treated the bowling with utmost respect, and Centralbroke through again in the 27th over when left arm spinner PreetiDimri trapped Saswati leg before. The 50 mark came up in the 28th overand Rumeli then proceeded to beef up the score with some cleanstriking that fetched boundaries to long on and midwicket off Varsha.The promising 16-year-old medium pacer Jhulan Goswami was stumped offa wide from Varsha in the 35th over and the innings was finallyterminated with Ranjana Gupta’s first legal delivery, from whichSabari Chatterjee was also stumped. Rumeli had run out of partnersafter making a valiant 33 (82 balls). Six bowlers got amongst thewickets for Central Zone but Bindeshwari was far and away the best andher figures of 10-3-11-3 reflected it.Central openers Bharati Varma and Priyanka Sailey quickly took chargeand guided the score to 16 in the fourth over before an out of theworld catch by Sabari Chatterjee prematurely ended Bharati’sinnings. Bharati got a top edge as she tried to work Sabari away onthe onside and the bowler ran around the non striker who was in herway and dived full length to complete the catch. Umpire Sumathi Iyerhad to consult the square leg umpire before raising the finger.In the next over Jhulan Goswami surprised Priyanka with an off cutterthat went through her defences and disturbed the off stump. Centralwere in just a spot of bother at 22/2 but Chitra Bajpai and ArundhatiKirkire guided them out of the woods with a fluently compiled thirdwicket stand. Sabari had been taken off after her sixth over went for11, including three wides and a trademark Chitra heave over thefielder at midwicket for four.Arundhati was in even better nick and cut Jhulan to the square thirdman fence for her first boundary. Off break bowler Saswati Mukherjeefailed to latch on to a return catch that Arundhati offered in herfirst over but off the very next ball she made up for thatdisappointment by dislodging Chitra’s off bail when the latter triedto repeat the same shot.Ranjana Gupta, playing her first match of the tournament, joinedArundhati with the score at 66/3 and pottered around for a whilebefore Sabari took a second astonishing catch in almost similarfashion. Ranjana sliced a full toss in the air in the direction ofmid on and Sabari once more took the c&b at a 180 degree angle to theground. Rahul Singh arrived with 19 more needed and survived a loudappeal for a catch by the keeper as she swung across the line andmissed. But Arundhati was in full cry now and ensured that no moremishaps occurred on the way. Two boundaries off Saswati in the 30thover closed out Central’s second win in three matches.