Central breeze past South with minimum fuss

Central Zone eased past South Zone by seven wickets on the opening day of the CricInfo Rani Jhansi tournament for women in Chennai at the Integral Coach Factory ground. After being put in to bat South had started confidently and were eyeing a useful score at 108/3 in the 31st over but the Central spinners led by Bindeshwari Goyal pulled the rug from under them as South collapsed to 137 all out. Central openers, Bharati Varma and Priyanka Sailey then put on an opening wicket stand of 73 and although both were sent off in quick succession, Central still had enough firepower to end the contest with fourteen overs to spare. Central keeper Arundhati had a satisfying day, snapping up five catches behind the stumps and stroking an unbeaten 27 that included four boundaries.

Amsavalli and Karuna Jain opened the batting for South and in the fourth over of the day Neetu Singh struck first blood for Central when she sent back Karuna for a duck. Harsha came in at one drop with the score at 10/1 but there was poor coordination between the two batswomen in their running between the wickets and almost inevitably the stand ended in a run out, with Amsavalli the victim. Earlier Harsha had scored the first two boundaries of the innings in the 10th over bowled by Tara. She seemed to be in a belligerent mood when she was stumped by the keeper off Preeti for 32 (49 balls, 3 fours), which turned out to be the highest score for South.

The sun had come out in full splendour belying the weather office's gloomy predictions of morning showers. Sudha Rani and Vinita Viola then put on a significant if not entirely convincing stand of 48 for the fourth wicket. But after Sudha was caught at long on for 29 when she stepped to the pitch and drove Bindeshwari , South suffered an inexplicable collapse. Vinita too departed at 119, bowled by Preeti and the last six wickets fell for 18 as the innings folded up for 137 in the penultimate over. Bindeshwari Goyal was the most successful bowler for Central with her nagging offbreaks claiming 3-26 in ten overs. She was well supported by fellow spinners Preeti Dudhe and Varsha Raphael with two wickets each.

Facing an asking rate of 2.76, Central openers Bharti Varma and Priyanka Sailey began their reply on a strong footing. But GS Lakshmi, the South captain, threw everything into a desperate effort to derail Central. She bowled a torrid but luckless first spell in which Bharati was dropped in the slips, the ball actually going through the slip cordon for three runs. Priyanka was also not comfortable with Lakshmi medium pace stuff and popped one just out of reach of forward short leg. When Lakshmi came off after a first spell of 6-1-15-0, the openers breathed easy. Priyanka was the more resourceful of the two as she kept stepping out and lofting to long on although the thickish grass in that region of the outfield prevented the ball from going all the way.

Bharati patience finally snapped when she tried to swing one from off spinner Nooshien Al Kabir into the depths of the on side and got a topedge which was swallowed by Harsha at point. She had made 26 and Central were 73/1. Nooshien struck again in her very next over, rearranging Priyanka's stumps but not before she had made the match top score of 36 (64 balls, 2 fours). Central's No.3, Chitra Bajpai, who has appeared in India colours, summoned all her experience and stemmed the breach with some fluent hitting. Chitra was bowled at 132, when Central were within one scoring stroke of victory, but Rahul Singh then delivered the finishing stroke with a boundary to midwicket.