Railways, Bengal have experience, Mumbai, Himachal, Baroda, Andhra rewarded for making right investments

Women’s CricZone looks at the match-ups.

Quarterfinal 1: Railways vs Team Uttarakhand

(Just Cricket Ground, December 26)

Railways, the defending champions who have lost just two BCCI tournaments ever, remain favourites. Their campaign has been built around Punam Raut’s 338 runs in seven innings as an opener, which includes two centuries. Her slow strike-rate is made up by her ability to bat for long duration. Mona Meshram and Veda Krishnamurthy have chipped in with a combined tally of 316 runs, and Mithali Raj has 194 runs from five innings. She has preferred to push the youngster up the order, preserving herself for the business end of the competition.

The spin trio of Poonam Yadav (15 wickets), Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Ekta Bisht (14 wickets each) have not allowed any side to reach 200 against them, and have dismissed three teams below 100.

Uttarakhand, the debutants, won seven of their eight matches – same as Pondicherry, but had a better net run-rate. Nisha Mishra, R Rai, Madhwal, Radha Chand and Jyoti Giri,  Kanchan Parihar and Mamta Kothiyal are their main players. Their most dominating performance came against Arunachal Pradesh. Radha’s 104 not out from No.7 took them to 300 for 7, and then Jyoti finished with 4 for 2 to dismiss Arunachal for 75.

Quarterfinal 2: Andhra Pradesh vs Odisha

(M Chinnaswamy Stadium, December 26)

The quarterfinal entry is another small marker in Andhra’s commitment to the sport through heavy investments in the grassroots. Except for their eight-wicket loss against Railways, they were comprehensive in other games. Vidarbha gave them a scare in a low-scoring game, but G Chandra Lekha’s 3 for 15 helped them to successfully defend 152.

It has been a collective show with CH Jhansi Lakshmi, K Anjali Sarvani, K Jyothi, V Pushpa Latha, N Anusha, E Padmaja standing up at different stages. It is a reflection of their depth even after few key players shifted to Railways.

Going into the final day of the league stages, Odisha were fifth on the table. They not only bundled out Jammu and Kashmir for 45 to script a five-wicket win that boosted the net run-rate from -0.291 to +0.076, but also were lucky that Himachal Pradesh beat Uttar Pradesh by seven runs. It pushed down Uttar Pradesh’s net run-rate from +0.511 to +0.417 and took Odisha to the second spot.

The bowling trio of  Priyanka Priyadarshini, Madhusmita Behera and Sushree Pradhan with 39 wickets between them have been Odisha’s stars. Madhuri Meheta is the only batter to have crossed the 200-run mark for them so far.

Quarterfinal 3: Mumbai vs Himachal Pradesh

(Alur Cricket Ground 2, December 27)

Himachal, another example of grassroots work paying dividends, are the only team to win all their eight league games. They were the first association, when Anurag Thakur was the president, to open a residential academy for the girls. Sushma Verma, the India wicketkeeper who was from the first batch shifted back to her home state from Railways last season and has led well. She has not been among runs, but got the best out of both the batting and bowling unit. Nikita Chauhan and Neena Chaudhary have held the batting together, while the talented Tanjua Kanwer has been the striking force with the ball.

Mumbai are another association to have taken women’s cricket seriously right from the time BCCI took charge in 2006, and their place in the quarterfinal is no surprise. They needed to win against Bengal to stay alive in the race, and Jemimah Rodrigues, who is second on the batting charts with 435 runs, made an unbeaten 133 in a successful chase of 194. The advantage they have over Himachal is that they  played their league games at this venue, and know the conditions well. The decision to give the captaincy to Shweta Haranhalli instead of Rodrigues has allowed their main batter to focus only on her game. She is also Mumbai’s best bowler with 13 wickets.

Quarterfinal 4: Bengal vs Baroda

(Alur Cricket Ground 3, December 27)

This could be the most intensely fought quarterfinal because both teams have played against each other in the league stage at the same venue and are aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Bengal beat Baroda by 130 runs, which put Radha Yadav’s team in a spot of bother but the way they held their nerve to beat Karnataka by seven runs after being dismissed for 136 in the must-win last league game showed their character. Radha has led from the front with 19 wickets, which puts on her fourth on the chart. She has her teammate Tarannum Pathan who is second on the list with 21 wickets. Pathan is also Baroda’s third-best batter with 187 runs ahead of Radha and behind Palak Patel and YH Bhatia.

Bengal have largely depended on the all-round show of Deepti Sharma, who joined them as a professional last season. She has 335 runs, is one of the four batters along with Raut, Rodrigues and Delhi’s Priya Punia with two centuries and is the owner of 17 wickets. Her potential has got a good guiding hand in captain Jhulan Goswami.