*Huge crowd witness cricketing extravaganza
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 25: Experienced opening batswomen Meenu Slathia’s brilliant half-century and left-arm spinner Nadia’s splendid 5-wicket haul guided Jammu Princess to outplay Srinagar Queens to lift the title trophy of the historic Chief Minister’s T20 Premier League, organized for women by Home Guards, Civil Defence, State Disaster Relief Fund, SCA and J&K State Sports Council at Parade ground, here.
The players from across the country and abroad were divided into eight teams in a systematic manner analogous to Indian Premier League (IPL). The participating teams included Jammu Princess, Srinagar Queens, Delhi Angels, Kolkata Flamigos, Mumbai Mermaids, Rajasthan Scorchers, Punjab Birds and Chennai Sharks.
After ‘all play all pattern’ in the two pools, Jammu Princess, Srinagar Queens, Delhi Angels and Punjab Birds qualified for the semifinals. Finally, Srinagar Queens and Jammu Princess locked horns for the summit clash.
Earlier, in the finals played today, formidable Jammu Princess defeated almost equally strong Srinagar Queens by 22 runs.
Put into bat by Srinagar Queens skipper, Shathira Jakir Jesy, Jammu Princess rode on superb 50 runs by Meenu Slathia to score a decent 114 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. Ritu (28) and Sarla (13) were the other contributors. Sumaiya took 3 important wickets from Srinagar Queens.
In reply, Srinagar Queens managed to score 92 runs, thus lost the match by 22 runs. Jasia Akhter top scored with 35 runs, while Neelam (23) and Bushra (13) also showed some resistance. Nadia was the wrecker-in-chief for Jammu Princess, who took 5 important wickets by conceding just 10 runs in her 4 overs, while Rubina Chetri bagged 3 wickets. For her superb bowling display, Nadia was declared as the woman of the match, while Neelam Bisht was adjudged as the best batswoman, Rubina Chetri as the best bowler and Jaisia received Scooty for being adjudged as the player of the Tournament. The cash prize of Rs 2 lakh was awarded to the winners, while Rs 1 lakh was given to the runners-up team.
The match was officiated by Sudhir Singh, Saleem-ur-Rehman, Sadiq Hussain, Amit Gupta, Sham Singh, Ashok and Vinod, while the proceedings of the programme were conducted by famous commentators Rajesh Dhar and RP Singh. Rajesh Gill, former Ranji Player and Member Sports Council Jammu, was the coordinating secretary.
Ranjeet Kalra from J&K State Sports Council and Rashmi Wazir from JKP supervised the whole tournament.
Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Choudhary Lal Singh was the chief guest on the concluding function.
He said that the Government is developing advanced sports edifice in the state with focus on rural and remote pockets, adding that efforts are afloat to strengthen sports infrastructure in the state.
Earlier, Mr Kalra presented welcome address.
The match was witnessed by a huge crowd as both the teams in the finals were from the host State.
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