Dominant Delhi lift Senior Women's One Day Trophy

New Delhi: The Delhi women's team won the Senior Women's One Day Elite Trophy, conducted by BCCI, beating favourites Railways by seven wickets to bring a sigh of relief to the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).

Incidentally, the only loss for Delhi throughout this tournament was against Railways in the league phase -- a loss that pushed them down to second position in their group. However, this was a sweet revenge and brings at least one trophy this season to DDCA's cabinet.

The Railways team won the toss and elected to bat. Loss of an early wicket, of Nuzhat Parveen, through a run out set them back. The Delhi bowlers bowled tight lines and kept picking wickets to put pressure on Railways. Left-arm spinner Parunika Sisodia (3/25), skipper Soni Yadav (2/29), Nazma (2/28) and Disha Nagar (2/18) ensured that Railways never returned to track.

The fancied team were bowled out for 133 in 44.2 overs.

Delhi's in-form batting did not wilt with Priya Punia, the top run-getter in the tournament, scoring 76 off 90 balls (14x4s) and wicketkeeper Pragya Rawat making 46 off 56 balls (8x4s). The duo put on 122 for the first wicket and that sealed the game.

Delhi had earlier beaten Andhra by 199 runs in the semifinals. They scored 340/4 in 50 overs with Priya Punia (60 off 77), Pragya Rawat 65 off 81), Shweta Sehrawat (113 off 73) and Tanisha Singh (75 not out off 55 balls) contributing. Tanisha had earlier led Delhi to the final of the Under-23 T20 tournament and will now lead the team in the U-23 One-Day tournament.

In the quarterfinals, Delhi had beaten Maharashtra by 56 runs.

Delhi had finished second in elite Group C, just behind Railways, on 24 points. They won five of their six matches, losing only to Railways.

There were several gains for Delhi and almost all the players performed admirably. Priya Punia finished as the top run-getter with 670 runs in nine matches at an average of 83.75 while Pragya Rawat made 557 runs in 10 matches at an average of 61.89. Priya Punia hit three centuries while Pragya Rawat hit two tons. The two batters occupied the top two spots in run-getters' list across the country. Tanisha Singh, who often batted lower down the order, finished in eighth place pan-India with 444 runs at an average of 74 while Shweta Sehrawat was ninth with 418 runs at 83.6.

Among the bowlers, off-spinner Nazma finished as the top wickettaker in the country with 24 scalps at 15.62. She had a good economy rate of 4.92. Parunika Sisodia also did fine, picking 11 wickets.

Tags : Women's Cricket, Priya Punia, Parunika Sisodia, Tanisha Singh, Nazma, Delhi