Charismatic Sandhya plots Manipur collapse; Rubia, Rudrakshi complete formality

J&K scripts 5th consecutive win in Sr Womens Trophy
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
KOLKATA, Nov 3: Almost all the J&K bowlers were once again brilliant today, especially charismatic skipper and off-spinner Sandhya Sayal, who plotted Manipur collapse by spinning web around the rival batters, while the batting duo of explosive Rubia Syed and Rudrakshi Chib completed the formality on a perfect batting strip as J&K drubbed Manipur by 9 wickets in their Plate Group Round V match of the BCCI’s Senior Women One Day Trophy at JU Second Campus, Salt Lake, here.
With this win J&K has almost certainly sealed a berth in the knock-out stage of this prestigious tournament and the team is all set to fly to Bangalore for the knockout phase.
Earlier, winning the toss and batting first, Manipur batters failed to negotiate the brilliant bowling stuff of Jammu and Kashmir medium pace duo of left-arm seamer Sarla Devi and right-arm speedster Bismah Hassan and started on a disastrous losing early wickets. Then it was Sandhya all the way, who ripped through the rival batting line-up.
Manipur managed to score a paltry total of 75 runs in 27.2 overs. Brahmacharimayum Devi top scored with 21 runs off 43 balls, while Singam Devi contributed 8 off 9 balls with 2 boundaries. For J&K, Sandhya Sayal was the wrecker-in-chief, who took 6 important wickets by conceding just 10 runs in her 9.2 overs, while Bismah Hassan and Sarla Devi bagged 2 wickets each.
In reply, J&K sailed on superb batting display by Rubia Syed and Rudrakshi Chib and surpassed the target in 20.3 overs, losing 1 wicket in the process, thus won the match by 9 wickets. Rubia played a magnificent power-packed innings of unbeaten 40 runs off 34 balls, studded with 5 delectable boundaries and one six, while Rudrakshi contributed unbeaten 17 runs off 56 balls including 2 crispy fours. Sarla was the only batter to be dismissed for 12 runs off 33 balls with the help of 1 boundary. For Manipur, Chingkhei M was the only successful bowler who took the lone wicket to fall.
J&K will face Meghalaya in their next outing on November 4 at 22 Yards, Salt Lake Kolkata. In the other two matches of the Plate Group today, Sikkim outplayed Arunachal Pradesh by 6 wickets and Nagaland got the better of Meghalaya by 40 runs.