Women's Under-23 team brings smiles in Delhi cricket's gloomy season

New Delhi: In a season of gloom for various Delhi teams, the under-23 women’s team has brought in a whiff of good news that surely lifted the spirits of Capital’s cricket establishment.

The Tanisha Singh-led team, which was defending its Women’s Under-23 T20 Trophy, cruised through to the final only to fall at the last hurdle to Haryana. 

Tanisha, who captained the team to the title last year, herself led from the front topping the run-getters’ list across the country along with Sujata Dey of Bengal with 290 runs. Both Tanisha and Sujata averaged 58 and had three fifties to their names.

Shweta Sehrawat aggregated 210 runs and was among the top 10 run-getters (eighth) while opener Deeksha too was among runs making 189 and ending as the 16th most successful batter in the tournament.

Delhi defeated Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar but lost to Madhya Pradesh in the league stage matches played in Chandigarh. They then defeated Maharashtra in the quarterfinal by 16 runs in what was a grudge match – revenge from last year’s losses in league and quarterfinal stages of under-23 one-dayers. They then proceeded to beat Karnataka by 10 runs in the semifinals before losing the final by six wickets.

The Delhi women's under-23 team lost only two matches in T20 competition 

“Our team did very well. This time the good thing was that we weren’t dependent on one or two players like it was last year,” said Tanisha Singh.

“We won the T20 title last year, and we knew we would defend it. Despite the result in the final, everybody played with responsibility.”

Around 6-7 players of the under-23 team also represent the Delhi team at the senior level. That helped the team gel well.

“We had a tough match against Maharashtra, the quarterfinal. We had planned that we will beat those who had beaten us before, sort of revenge. We wanted to create fear of the Delhi team among other teams. We were playing with that zeal.”

Tanisha Singh led from the front, returning as the top run-getter across the country

While batting was fine, bowling turned out to be the weak link.

Deeksha, the opener who bowls medium pace, performed consistently in the league phase. She took 10 wickets and ended sixth in the list of wickettakers. Bharti Rawal, the left-arm spinner, also took 10 wickets and was eighth in the list of wickettakers.

“Bowling let us down. The main bowlers didn’t get wickets as expected from them – Bharti, Parunika [Sisodia], Madhu [Dhama], Priya Mishra. These are our main four bowlers and they make the team strong. Deeksha bowled well,” added skipper Tanisha.

Delhi couldn’t get as many runs as they hoped to get in the final, but still 154/7 was good enough to defend.

But the bowlers couldn’t get wickets and there were 3-4 instances of misfielding. That let Haryana reach the 157/4 in 17.5 overs.

Delhi’s senior women’s team too had done well in the Senior Women’s T20 competition earlier, winning their pool games but falling short in the Super League stage.

They defeated Karnataka, had their game against Madhya Pradesh rained off and then lost the must-win game against Vidarbha.

The senior team now gets ready for the one-day competition in February while the Under-23 team will play the one-day competition in March.

Tags : Tanisha Singh, Deeksha, Shweta Sehrawat, Cricket, Delhi, Women, Under-23