Excelsior Sports Correspondent
Jammu, Jan 18: Experienced campaigners Sarla Devi and Sandhya Sayal once again produced great bowling show, however that went in vain as J&K’s suffered a huge defeat by 228 runs against formidable Railways at Siechem Stadium, Puducherry today.
Earlier, winning the toss and batting first, Railways scored a huge total of 296 runs in the stipulated 50 overs, losing 8 wickets in the process. D Hemalatha top scored with power-packed 87 runs off 60 balls, studded with 9 fours and 4 sixes, while Mona contributed 85 runs off 107 balls including 7 fours and one six. Renuka Chaudhari also contributed 38 runs off 52 balls studded with 4 boundaries.
Left-arm seamer Sarla Devi as usual was the pick of the bowlers, who captured 4 wickets by conceding 42 runs in her 10 overs, while skipper Sandhya Sayal bagged 3 wickets by giving away 43 runs in her 10 overs. All the other bowlers including Iqra Rasool, Anju Tomar, Rubia Syed and Nadia Chowdhary failed to hit good areas and were expensive and unimpressive. The absence of speedster Bismah Hassan from the team was hugely felt as it was she alongwith the duo of Sarla and Sandhya who were instrumental in shaping J&K’s qualification for the knockout stage last season. Bismah is not travelling with the team, reasons better known to the selectors and the management.
In reply, J&K bundled out for paltry 68 runs in 31.4 overs, thus lost the match by a big margin of 228 runs. Openers Sheerazah Banoo and Shivanti Gupta made a partnership of 48 runs in 14.4 overs before Sheerazah departed at her individual score of 28 runs off 50 balls, studded with 5 boundaries, while Shivanti contributed 20 runs to the total. Bushra Ashraf (11) was the only other batter to cross double figure mark, while six batters including Anju Tomar (0) Rubia Syed (0), Sarla Devi (0), Rifat Chowdhary (0) and Lalita (0) fell without scoring.
For Railways, skipper Poonam Yadav, Preeti R Bose and Tanuja Kanwar bagged 3 wickets each, while Swagatika Rath claimed one wicket.
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