Hemalatha derails South Zone

Hemalatha helped Indian Railways to a comfortable seven wicket win with 9.3 overs to spare against South Zone in the CricInfo Rani Jhansi Trophy women's tournament at the Southern Railway ground in Chennai on Wednesday. This was the fourth straight defeat for South Zone in the tournament.

Having to score 170 for a win, Railways started in real earnest when openers Balvir Kaur and Purnima Choudary. Though Balvir thrashed two consecutive square cuts in the first over, she was adjudged leg before to Swarnalaxmi at the score of 16 in the fourth over. Rajni Venugopal joined Purnima but the partnership did not last long. Purnima was caught behind off Mamta in the ninth over while trying to steer the ball to backward square leg.

Purnima's dismissal brought together Rajni and Hemalatha. Both were looking to play their shots, especially Hemalatha. They chose the balls to be hit and never hesitated to run the singles hard. But Rajni in a rare misjudgement, found herself short of the crease when Mamta threw the stumps down with a direct hit.

Shyama now joined Hemalatha in a fruitful partnership. They added an unbeaten 101 runs for the fourth wicket in 24.1 overs. The two put their heads down and steered the score to 109 at the second drinks break in the 27th over. Hemalatha was more sensible in the selection of her shots and her placement than Shyama who was more flamboyant. But the two in tandem were more than a handful for the mediocre South Zone attack. During the last stretch, Shyama tried to finish off in style by hitting two crisply struck boundaries.

Earlier, South put up a poor batting display. Openers Vanita and Sudha Rani started their innings by conceding a maiden. With a predominantly off side field, the Railways bowlers Sunita and Umesh bowled far too many balls down the leg side. But the openers were not able to capitalise on this. Vanita was willing to go for her shots but all she could find were the Railways' fielders.

The twelfth over saw a double change in the bowling as off-spinner Rupanjali and left arm-spinner Neetu David replaced Sunita and Umesh. They struck a good line and length and restricted the South openers to mostly singles. At the first drinks break after the 19th over, both Neetu and Rupanjali had conceded only eleven runs in eight overs between them. Soon after the drinks break, the openers tried to get out of the rut and tried making some lofted shots. But that spelt disaster as South soon lost Vanita when she mistimed a drive and spooned an easy catch to Shyama Shah at point.

The entry of Karuna saw some good running between the wickets. They started to take some good singles, peppered with boundary hits. After a good spell of bowling by the two spinners Neetu (1 for 19 in 10 overs) and Rupanjali (none for 20 in 10 overs) Diana replaced Neetu and continued in the same vien. In the 35th over Diana had Karuna leg before, when she was starting to look good.

After holding the South inings together during a fine innings of 52, Sudha was run out in the 39th over. Her departure prompted both Harsha and Manjula to go for some risky running between the wickets and it was only a matter of time before both of them were dismissed. Towards the closing stages of the innings, South did make an attempt to step up the scoring rate but instead they lost wickets in a flurry. The last ten overs saw 55 runs being scored but for the loss of eight wickets. The innings folded up in the 50th over at the score of 170. There were six run outs, ample proof of the fine performance by Indian Railways on the field.