Rann Star lift Kalpana Chawla Memorial women's cricket title

By Vipashana Thakur

New Delhi: Rann Star Cricket Club took the trophy home, beating Cricket Academy of Narwal by four wickets on Sunday in the final of the Kalpana Chawla Memorial Women's Cricket Tournament at the Gargi College grounds.

Narwal won the toss, batted first and were dismissed for 133 in 37.3 overs, a total the team felt could have been more.

"The wicket was tough, but we could have taken it to 180," said Jyoti Baliyan, Narwal batter, after the match.

"The way our team has been performing, players have been delivering back to back. We got a little casual, and we lost three wickets right at the start."

Komal Boican was adjudged player of the tournament

The early mistakes proved costly for the team. Top scorer Suman Sandhu, made 34 off 40 balls including five fours, before being run out.

Second best scorer of the team -- Ritika Sharma -- secured 24 runs off 52 balls before being caught. Namita Singh contributed 14 runs off 22 balls, hitting two fours.

Narwal coach Udham Rana said "There were many things. Our batsmen their wickets away. The captain should not have gone for that run."

Rann Star bowled Narwal out for 133, with Nitya Maik returning as the leading wicket-taker, taking three wickets for 27 runs in eight overs and Ritu taking two in 7 overs.

Rakesh Paweriya, ACP, addresses the gathering 

Kinjal Chaudhary, Tejaswani and Puja chipped in with one wicket each.

At the innings break, Nitya Maik was confident about the chase to come.

"We knew our opening batters would chase it down," she said.

Her confidence was well placed.

DDCA President Rohan Jaitley is felicitated

Rann Star won by four wickets with 5.3 overs to spare. Kinjal Chaudhary, the Player of the Match, led the chase with 52 runs off 86 balls. Ameeshi made 34 not out off 52 balls, and Nitya finished the match with eight not out off eight balls.

The Narwal bowlers put up a great fight. Janvi was named Fighter of the Match, taking three wickets for 27 runs in six overs, while Rita and Suman Sandhu each claimed one, but it was not enough.

RP Cricket Academy coach Ajay Verma addresses the gathering 

The 3rd edition of Kalpana Chawla Memorial Tournament was one rare platform in Delhi dedicated to the traditional 40-over red ball format for women. Rann Star Cricket Club wrote their name as this year's champions.

The winners got a cash prize of Rs 30,000 while the runners-up walked away with Rs 20,000. The best batsmen, best bowler and best fielder were awarded a Samsung mobile phone each. Komal Boican was adjudged the Player of the Tournament and got a Bajaj Scooty as prize. 

Tags : Cricket, Women, Delhi, DDCA, Kalpana Chawla