Batters fail again, UP almost out of knockout race

LUCKNOW : Uttar Pradesh’s poor show with willow almost sealed their fate in the Senior Women’s T20 League on Friday as they lost to lowly Goa by eight wickets in their penultimate match of Elite Group D.

Batting first after winning the toss, Uttar Pradesh could make 123/6, at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, and in reply, Goa romped home with one over to spare, losing just two wickets.

Despite losing opener Ibtisam Shaikh (3), who was stumped by Shipra Giri off Shilpi Yadav, in the second over, Goa batters enjoyed a mediocre bowling attack and went on stitching 70-run for the second-wicket. Whereas Sanjula Sudhakar Naik remained unbeaten at 50, which came off 55 balls with the help of four hits to the fence, Tejshwini Duragad made 33 in 4 balls with the help of three boundaries and a six.

Shikha Pandey too showed her might with willow, hitting an unbeaten 29 in just 19 balls, which contained five hits to the fence. She along with Naik added unbeaten 46 runs for the thirdwicket. Rashi Kanojiya took the other wicket. It was bad toss to win for Uttar Pradesh as they never got the going easy. They lost both the openers Anita Lodhi (0) and Shipra Giri (8) in quick succession, and were reduced to 11/2 in 2.3 overs. Though skipper Muskan Malik (22, 34b, 2x4), Anjali Singh (24, 26b, 2x4) and Nishu Choudhary (36*, 26b, 5x4) tried to accelerate the run-scoring, wickets kept falling on regular intervals and at one moment they were 5/75 in 14.5 overs. Poorav Bhaidkar remained the most successful bowler for Goa, bagging 2/21, whereas Nikita, Metali Gawandar and Sunanda shared three wickets between them.

Given the situation, Uttar Pradesh have no hopes of making it to the knockout with just eight points in four matches. Even if they win their last league match against Uttarakhand on Sunday, they won’t be able to make the cut as Goa with 16 points are at the top.