Indian Green Women win Challenger Trophy
Poonam Raut and Jhulan Goswami were the stars in India Green Women's victory against India Blue Women in the final of the Challenger Trophy in Ahmedabad
Cricinfo staff
05-Jan-2010
India Blue Women 101 for 7 (Varsha Choudhary 28, Goswami 2-7, Dabir 2-13) lost to India Green Women 125 for 9 (Raut 42, Roy 30, Malhotra 2-19) by 24 runs
Stroke-filled innings from Poonam Raut and Priyanka Roy were followed up by a solid bowling performance headed by Jhulan Goswami and Soniya Dabir to ensure that India Green Women turned the tables on India Blue Women to win the Women's Challenger Trophy in Ahmedabad. Asked to bat first, India Green recovered strongly from the early dismissal of Sulakshana Naik. The recovery was initiated by Raut (42) and Roy (30) who struck five fours each and added 51 runs in 46 balls. India Blues came back well through Lalita Sharma and Reema Malhotra who picked two wickets each in the middle overs. Despite their efforts, the India Blues needed to chase 126 to lift the trophy, the highest target set in the series.
Their efforts could not take flight, thanks to Goswami's frugal and incisive spell. She breached the defences of opener Anagha Deshpande in her first spell to stunt the momentum despite Shikha Pandey conceding 24 in her first two overs. Harmanpreet Kaur and Dabir complemented Goswami's effort and stifled the run-scoring in the middle overs. Panic set in, resulting in two run outs including that of top-scorer Varsha Chaudhary for 28 to scupper India Blues' hopes. Goswami returned to round off her fine spell with a wicket in the last over.
