UP score big win, but go out of K-O race
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh crushed lowly Uttarakhand by 108 runs to finish off their league campaign in the Senior Women’s T20 League with their third win in the Elite Group D, but it didn’t make any difference to the side, which failed to make the cut for a knockout berth for yet another season in continuation on Sunday.
Baroda with 16 points qualified for the knockout from the Group as Goa even with 16 points ran out of the race on the basis of low net run-rate. Uttar Pradesh finished third in the Group with 12 points, whereas Vidarbha (8 pts) and Gujarat and Uttarakhand finished with four points each.
Having won their first two matches at this ground before losing two straight games on other ground, Uttar Pradesh chose to bat first after winning the toss, and the decision proved worthy, at the IS Bindra Cricket Stadium. With openers Anita Lodhi (20, 17, 3x4) and keeperbatter Shipra Giri (40, 31b, 6x4) stitching together 34-run for the opening wicket, Uttar Pradesh went on scoring 152/3 in 20 overs. Even after losing Lodhi’s wicket in the 4.3 overs, Uttar Pradesh batters, especially Giri along with skipper Muskan Malik went on adding 56 runs for the second-wicket. Stylish Muskan made full use of a mediocre bowling attack, and smashed her maiden half-century of the season, scoring 48-bball 57, which included five hits to the fence and a six.
Young Nishu Choudhary too enjoyed her batting, hitting an unbeaten 29, which came off 22 balls with the help of three boundaries. She and Muskan stitched together 50-run for the third-wicket. For Uttarakhand, Radha Chand, Anjali Kathait and Prema shared three wickets between them.
In reply, Uttarakhand never got the going easy and after losing opener Nazma (3), who was stumped by Giri off Kshama Singh, the wickets kept falling like nine pins before being bundled out for 44 in 15.5 overs. Barring opener Raghvi, who scored 15-ball 18 with the help of two fours and a six, no other batter could touch the double figure mark.
Kshama Singh finished with 3/12, whereas Rashi Kanojiya took 2/7. Shilpi Yadav, Almas Bharadwaj and Anjali Singh took a wicket each. “We could have won the previous two matches and qualified for the knockout too, but frequent changes in the winning combination shattered our plans as those changes failed to make much of a difference,” a team insider said after the match on Sunday.
MPCA TRIUMPH
An unbeaten half-century by Kritagya Singh helped Multi Facility Cricket Arena (MPCA) win the D division league, defeating Ekana rangers by four wickets here on Sunday.
Singh smashed 87-ball 68 , which contained eight hits to the fence, as MPCA romped home in 36.5 overs while chasing 195 to win in 40 overs. MPCA were 3/44 in 7.4 overs at one moment, but Singh with his hard hitting batting, made things easy for the side. Jivesh Tripathi (21) and Rizwan (19) and Vijay Yadav (17) too made useful contributions. Suraj Mishra and Rajneesh Ratan Rai took two wickets each for Ekana Rangers, which scored 194/9 while batting first after winning the toss. Suraj (62, 89b, 8x4, 2x6) and Anjaney Suryavanshi (33, 15b, 7x4) stitched together 56 runs for the opening wicket. Ajai Singh struck 56-ball 52, which contained three fours and two sixes. For MPCA., Asif bagged 4/11, whereas Vijay Yadav and Monu Paswan shared four wickets between them.
LUCKNOW BADMINTON
The four-day Lucknow District Badminton Championship will be held from April 28 to May 1, at the Vinay Khand Stadium here. The event is open for all age category players. Interested must contact, organizing secretary, Praveen Raj.