North choked at the death to throw away a game they should have wonwith ease at the CPT ground in Chennai on the final day of theCricInfo Rani Jhansi tournament today
Sankhya Krishnan08-Apr-2000North choked at the death to throw away a game they should have wonwith ease at the CPT ground in Chennai on the final day of theCricInfo Rani Jhansi tournament today. Replying to South Zone’s totalof 164/9, North fell agonisingly short by one run, at 163/6. Thenumber of wickets in hand tells the tale of how North failed to forcethe pace in the final overs. A magnificent 88 run third wicketpartnership between Rajini Bhalla (56 not out) and Gurdeep Kaur (44)took North to 137/2 in the 42nd over.The stand was broken in the only possible way that it looked likehappening, a run out, and two more wickets fell cheaply. But withcaptain Rajini Bhalla around at the crease, North were still thefavourites until the very end. Eight were needed from the last twoovers and four from the last. Seema Wadhwa just could not get the ballaway in the final over bowled by Mamtha. Two runs were needed from thelast ball and Seema was bowled to give South a consolation victory andNorth a most inconsolable loss. Mamtha had done the trick for Southwith a spot on last over and finished with figures of 10-3-21-3.Raakhee Mehra and Jaya Sharma had given North the ideal start with a49 run stand in just under 18 overs. Both were dismissed at the samescore, the latter trapped leg before by Mamtha, and the former beingpointlessly run out. Rajini and Gurdeep made the task look easy asthey kept the scoreboard moving relentlessly for the next 23 odd overswith some clean hitting, some deflections and some edges. The bowlingheld no terror as the two never looked remotely in trouble. Howeverboth began to tire towards the end, easing up in their running betweenthe wickets so much so that a run out looked a distinctpossibility. After Gurdeep had obliged South, Gulshan Sharma playedout a maiden from Mamtha in the 44th over to pile the pressure onNorth. Yesterday North had mocked at an asking rate of 54 runs in 60balls to take out Central but today they baulked at a much simplerproposition. There was a funereal atmosphere in the North camp afterthe match and as their coach launched into a tirade against them youreally felt sorry for these girls who had played their heart out forthe greatest part of the contest. Cricket can be a very unforgivinggame.Earlier a 75 run third wicket partnership between Sudha Rani andHarsha had helped South recover from the perilous depths of 17/3 butNorth hit back towards the end to peg their target down to 165. Acombination of some poor running between the wickets and some inspiredbowling by Vandna Gupta and Anjuman Bassi cost South dearly. Southcame into the match with a day’s rest behind them and elected to batafter winning the toss against a rejuvenated North side playing thesame eleven that beat Central yesterday. Vanita Viola cover droveVandna Gupta to the boundary in the very first over. A no ball wascalled in Vandna’s second over for illegally employing three fieldersbehind the popping crease on the leg side. Asha Jain at the other endwas bowling to an unusual 7-2 field and in the 4th over of the day,Manjula patted a halfvolley straight back to her to fall for a duck.Vanita continued in her aggressive vein, driving Vandna through midoff for four but South lost their second wicket when Karuna Jainplayed to square leg and set off furiously without any response fromthe other end. She was comfortably run out by a Gulshan throw. Therewas more hara-kiri to follow when Vanita was also run out by JayaSharma in the covers to leave South in an unflattering position. Sudhaand Harsha now came together in a rescue act, playing with a lot ofresponsibility. They did take a few risks though, especially to Asha,with the great open spaces on the leg side being too tempting. The12th over produced 11 runs as both batswomen took toll of the vacantdeep midwicket region. Vandna Gupta was bowling a magnificent rundenying length and produced three consecutive maidens at one stage toreally tighten the screws on the scoring. The 50 came up with a coupleto deep point in the 19th over as Vandna finished her ten overs on thetrot with figures of 10-4-16-0.Seema Wadhwa’s first over produced ten runs as Harsha, after a periodof relative quiet, drove one furiously past the bowler to the fence asshe gingerly put out a hand to stop it. Seema had to endure threeconsecutive misfields in her next over, including a dreadful one byAnjuman at deep midwicket for four. But her luck finally turned whenHarsha lobbed one gently into the hands of square leg for 31. Sudhaseemed to be unperturbed as she took 11 runs in the next over byReema, mostly coming through sweeps and pulls on the leg side andbringing up the 100 of the innings in the process in the 31stover. But in the next over by Seema, Sudha played a couple ofhorrendous premeditated heaves across the line and only managed toconnect thin air. Off the first she survived a stumping appeal but thesecond time she got a nick to the keeper, Gurdeep Kaur. Having made48, she should really have been looking to push the ball away for asingle or two to a field that was pretty deep.The score was now 107/5 and Kamakshi also ran herself out shortlyafter, when the non striker, Amsavalli, clung like a limpet to thecrease. Anjuman came back for a splendid second spell of three overswithout conceding a run, in the course of which she also snaredAmsavalli, stumped as she played forward and missed. Her back foot wasreckoned to be just out of the crease. The South lower order managedto accumulate a few useful runs in the later overs and moreimportantly play out their entire quota. Seema Wadhwa was the mostrewarded bowler, with figures of 2-42.
