Tripura women team cruised to the knockout round in the National Senior Women’s Cricket Tournament on Sunday – after a hiatus of 13 years.
In a fiercely contested low scoring match, Tripura women defeated Jharkhand by one wicket and scripted 6th straight victory along with a berth in the knockout stage.
The knockout round of the tournament will begin in Baroda from January 20. The team, led by Annapurna Das has secured the ticket to play in the knockout before their last group match.
In a low-scoring match at the Barbati Stadium on Sunday, Surabhi Roy and Hriju Saha played a key role in helping Tripura win. Surabhi stopped Jharkhand for a low score with the ball, and then Hriju Saha played a responsible innings with the bat to give Tripura a win in a match that was almost lost.
The wicket at Barbati was helpful for the fast bowlers.
On Sunday morning, Jharkhand captain Niharika won the toss and decided to bat first. Tripura’s two fast bowlers Priyanka Acharya and Survi Roy put a steamroller on Jharkhand’s batsmen from the start.
Under the pressure of the two bowlers, Jharkhand went into the pit from the start. Survi led the attack with the ball. Jharkhand managed to score 71 runs losing all wickets in 34.4 overs. Monica scored 18 runs with the help of two boundaries in 65 balls, and Khushbu Kumari scored 12 runs in 23 balls. No other batsman in the team could reach the double digits.
In addition, the team got 16 runs in the extra. Surabhi Roy took five wickets for 16 runs and Priyanka Acharya took two wickets for 13 runs for Tripura.
In reply, Tripura got into trouble from the start under Jharkhand’s counterattack. The wickets started falling quickly and at some point, the State team staring at a certain defeat.
Hriju and Hena Hotchanandini put up brief resistance. After Hena was out scoring 17 runs, it was only Hriju’s heroics that saved the team.
Tripura was at the verge of defeat with nine wickets down for 62. But Hriju remained unbeaten on 17 runs which were sufficient to give Tripura one wicket victory over Jharkhand. Tripura scored the required runs to win by losing nine wickets in 32.4 overs.
Arti took four wickets for 11 runs and Shanti Kumari took three wickets for 24 runs for Jharkhand.
“The way Hriju (17 not out) batted with determination under pressure was unimaginable”, said Annapurna Das, the skipper. Team’s coaches also expressed happiness and applauded players’ efforts.
By winning all six matches of the tournament with 24 points, Tripura has cleared the way to play in the knockouts.
Score :
Jharkhand 71
Tripura 72/9