Jharkhand crumble from 130 for 5 to 167 all out
Railways Women 169 for 3 (Raut 59, Meghana 53) beat Jharkhand Women 167 all out (Roy 49, Rana 3-33, Singh 2-22) by seven wickets
Fifties from Punam Raut and Sabbhineni Meghana helped Railways lift the Women’s Senior One Day Trophy, after right-arm pacer Meghna Singh and offspinner Sneh Rana routed Jharkhand for 167 to set them up for a win in the final in Rajkot.
Jharkhand were off to a decent start before Ekta Bisht applied the brakes with Niral Rashmi’s wicket. Singh then struck in consecutive deliveries in the seventh over to remove Ritu Kumari and Radhey Sonia to leave them reeling at 30 for 3. It was Indrani Roy and Durga Murmu’s fourth-wicket partnership of 60 runs that then resurrected Jharkhand’s innings. Rana pinned Murmu in front to break the partnership and then returned to have Roy stumped for 49. Jharkhand’s innings never saw a lift following that, except for captain Mani Niharika’s 39 off 59 balls, as Rana, Bisht and Poonam Yadav combined to rattle the lower order, bowling them out for 167 from 130 for 5. Rana finished with three wickets, while Singh and Bisht picked two apiece.
Railways lost opener Nuzhat Parween for a duck but a strong second-wicket partnership between Meghana and Raut kept them on course in the chase. Raut, who is coming off an excellent form for India in the recent ODIs against South Africa, followed up her 69 not out in the semi-final against Bengal with a carefully-crafted 59. Meghana, on the other hand, was the aggressor in the partnership, making a 67-ball 53, which included six fours.
Ravinder Devyani removed both the set batters, but the rest of the line up had only 43 runs to chase in with 116 balls remaining after Meghana’s dismissal in the 31st over. Rana made easy work of the target with her 22-ball 34 and Mona Meshram chipped in with a 34-ball 19 as the duo remained unbeaten to help Railways cruise to a seven-wicket win.