After chasing successfully in their two out of two outings, the defending champions Railways chose to do something different in their third fixture against Punjab at Railway Cricket Ground, Rajkot, when the skipper Mithali Raj won the toss and elected to bat first.
Railways openers seemed to give a good start to their team, scoring 42 runs, before Thirushkamini (14) was bowled by Mehak Kesar in the 14th over. Poonam Raut and captain Raj were playing well, before Mehak struck again. She got rid of Poonam Raut (29) in the 22nd over of the game. India vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur walked in to bat at no. 4 to give company to her captain. Sunita Rani got the better off Mithali and suddenly the Railways had lost its top order for 85 runs on board. Harmanpreet (21), Veda (45) and Niranjana (43*) played exceedingly well to take the score to 199 runs. Though there was not much for the Punjab bowlers, Mehak Kesar was the best bowler with 2/47 in her full quota of 10 overs.
Chasing 199 against the defending champions Railways was always going to be a daunting task. The Punjab batting line up collapsed like a pack of cards and within a matter of 24 overs, the scoreboard read 7/44. It was a batting debacle as none of the Punjab batswoman could get the runs. Rewa Arora (22) was the lone fighter in the battle, before Sneh Rana got her out caught and bowled in the 26th over. After the initial breakthroughs provided by Kavita (2) and Niranjana (1), Rajeshwari, Sneh Rana and Ekta Bisht joined the party with two wickets each. The disciplined bowling performance of Railways handed them a massive victory of 154 runs. Railways completely outplayed Punjab in all the three departments and have proved that they are the true champions.
Railways are on a winning spree as they have won three out three matches and are comfortably sitting at the top with valuable 12 points. Punjab women haven’t disturbed the points table and are at stagnant at 4 points.
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