da dobrowin： Air India hardly broke into a sweat in romping past South Zone byseven wickets for their third successive victory in the CricInfo RaniJhansi tournament at the SRMC ground in Chennai today
Sankhya Krishnan04-Apr-2000Air India hardly broke into a sweat in romping past South Zone byseven wickets for their third successive victory in the CricInfo RaniJhansi tournament at the SRMC ground in Chennai today. South Zone putin a richly soporific display with the bat, scraping together 84/9 in50 overs after winning the toss and batting. Opener Vanita Viola wasthe lone lass who managed to stay put at the wicket for any length oftime but her 46 not out (129 balls) in 50 overs was just a shadebetter than Sunil Gavaskar’s infamous 36 in 60. In the post noonsession, GS Lakshmi again bowled her heart out, grabbing two earlywickets, but a 54 run fourth wicket partnership between Mithali Rajand Anju Jain steered the Air India women home with 22 overs to spare.Keeping in mind the formidable batting reputation of Air India, Southdared not tempt fate by putting them in and the match as a spectaclewas killed at that very moment. The openers just did not make anyeffort to score. At the very least they could just drop the ball attheir feet and run but here they were patting the ball straight to thefielders, refusing to be hurried. New ball bowlers, Smitha Harikrishnaand Kusumlatha gave away just 15 runs in the first twelve overs beforeoff spinner Seema Pujare was brought on from the pavilion end.She struck with her third ball to as Karuna Jain stepped out to oneoutside off stump and missed the line to be stumped by keeper AnjuJain. New batswoman Harsha was brilliantly caught by Mamtha Ranade atslip in Seema’s third over as she drove lazily at one outside offstump. And Sejal then gifted a dolly catch to Smitha at mid off togive Seema three out of three and leave the score at 23/3 in the 19thover. Kusumlatha had bowled out her ten overs on the trot to finishwith the fabulous figures of 10-6-6-0, which speaks as much for heropponent’s ineptness as much for her own skill.Left arm spinner Usha Bogade was introduced in the 22nd over whilePurnima Rao’s off breaks were seen in action from the otherend. Vanita Viola and Sudha Rani then added 32 runs for the fourthwicket before Purnima got rid of Sudha Rani, caught behind by AnjuJain. Amsavalli hit a full toss into the arms of backward square legand Kamakshi ran herself out going for an ambitious second run throughthe covers. There was a spell between the 40th and 45th overs when norun came off the bat for 29 balls and the last ten overs produced allof 17 runs. Seema finished with 3/13 in 10 overs and Usha, 2/17 butthe most successful was Purnima Rao who mopped up the tail to bag ahaul of 4/29. There was not a single boundary in the innings, not evena three, although on one occasion the batswomen ran two byes off awide to get three runs from the delivery.The batting order was turned over its head once more by Air India,with Anjum Chopra and Smitha Harikrishna opening the innings. Anjumstruck the first boundary of the match in the fourth over, with astraight drive off Mamtha. But South captain GS Lakshmi had not thrownin the towel yet, and sent back Smitha Harikrishna and Manju Nadgodain successive overs with the score stationary on 16. Mithali Rajjoined Anjum and the scoreboard began to tick away once more but notwith the usual fervour that Air India bring to their game.With the score at 31 in the 15th over, Anjum hit a full toss fromNooshien to midwicket and was run out by an accurate throw fromShobana as she scrambled for a third run. Anju Jain, the regularopener for Air India, came in at No.5 and the urgency in her approachhelped instil some much needed life into the game. Brisk runningbetween the wickets produced twos and threes in profusion as the fiftywas posted in the 21st over. Sejal was brought on in the 22nd over andher flighted donkey drops were taken for ten runs including four widesand the second and last four of the match, struck straight down theground by Anju Jain. It was all over six overs later as twosuccessive misfields off Nooshien spelled finis to themismatch. Mithali was unbeaten on 25 (68 balls) and Anju on 26 (35balls).