Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 12: Holding nerves in the crunch situation and overcoming pressure, Jammu and Kashmir eves emerged victorious over their counterparts from Himachal Pradesh in the last match of the ongoing practice match tri-series as part of JKCA Senior Women’s Preparatory Camp at JKCA Hostel ground, here today.
With today’s success J&K registered its fourth victory in the 5-match series involving Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh apart from the hosts. Earlier, put into bat, J&K opening batters Bawandeep Kour and Anju Tomar began the innings on an aggressive note as the make-shift opener Bawandeep struck a crispy boundary on the very first ball of the innings. Both the openers were going great guns before young Bawandeep ran herself out rather sacrificed her wicket for the senior partner at her individual score of 10 runs and the team’s total of 18 runs in 4.1 overs.
Chitra Singh Jamwal joined Anju and took the score to 39 runs in 7.5 overs before Anju’s dismissal at her individual score of 24 runs off 29 balls, studded with 3 boundaries. Unlike yesterday, Anju was brilliant in rotating the strike and hitting the odd boundary today, thus nullifying the dot ball tactics of the rivals.
Then explosive Rubia and stylish Chitra played brilliantly to help their side make a respectable total of 119 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. While Rubia scored brisk unbeaten 45 runs off 40 balls with six boundaries and one six, Chitra was artistic in scoring 31 runs off 36 balls. Both these batters showed elegance, brilliance, besides athleticism and motor ability while taking singles and twos. For Himachal Pradesh, Sakshi was the only successful bowler, who took one wicket.
In reply, Himachal Pradesh managed to score 114 runs in the allotted 20 overs, thus lost the match by a narrow margin of 6 runs. Shivani top scored with 27-ball 27 runs, studded with 4 boundaries, while Sakshi Thakur and Vandana Rana contributed 26 and 23 runs to the total respectively.
For J&K, speedster Bismah Hassan was the pick of the bowlers, who took 2 wickets by conceding 4 runs in her 2 overs, while Chitra also bagged 2 wickets by giving away 20 runs in her 4 overs. Skipper/off-spinner Sandhya Sayal and left-arm spinner Nadia Chowdhary claimed one wicket each.
Meanwhile, Brigadier Anil Gupta, Member-Administration JKCA honoured the Himachal Pradesh team by presenting a memento to Manager of the team, Dr Geeta Mehta.