CHENNAI: Skipper Mona Meshram’s unbeaten 71 and Kalyani Chawarkar’s 5 for 22 enabled Vidarbha to beat Gujarat by 71 runs in a fourth round Plate A match of the BCCI senior women’s one-dayers at TI Cycles-Murugappa grounds here on Friday.
The venue is known to aid spin, and off-spinner Kalyani exploited the surface to the hilt. Gujarat’s batting line-up had no answer to her guile, as they erred in shot-selection. At IC-Guru Nanak College grounds, Kerala women continued their good form in the tournament to thrash Jharkhand by 85 runs. The neutral-venues initiative has enabled various women’s teams in the country to get an opportunity to play at regular Test centers. During the last few rounds, one saw several teams being shot out for low totals. “See, most girls have played on matting wickets, and many do not have the experience of playing at such big (Chepauk) venues. So it will take some time for them to adjust,” said a senior official of the women’s wing of BCCI.
Brief scores: Fourth round league matches: At MA Chidambaram: J&K 55 in 38.4 ovs (C Prathyusha 4/14, Sahana Pawar 3/4) lost to Karnataka 56/1 in 11.4 ovs. Points: KSCA 4 (12); J&KCA 0 (0).
At TI-Murugappa cricket grounds: Vidarbha 192/4 in 50 ovs (Mona Meshram 71 no) bt Gujarat 121/9 in 50 ovs (Kalyani Chawarkar 5/22). VCA 4 (8); GCA 0 (8). At IC-Guru Nanak: Kerala 123 in 49.2 ovs (Shubh Lakshmi 3/18, Rini Burman 3/30) bt Jharkhand 38 in 26.5 ovs (S Sajana 4/11, S Asha 4/5). KCA 4 (12); JSCA 0 (8).
Raja scalps six
R Raja Guru’s 6 for 69 was instrumental in Districts II bagging a lead of 22 runs over Districts I in the drawn final match of the TNCA Round Robin U-16 tournament played at CPT-IP (turf) grounds. Districts II were declared winners by virtue of their first innings lead.
Brief scores: Districts II 338/8 in 87.1 ovs (Mokit Hariharan 107, B Jayaraman 105) drew with Districts I 316 in 88 ovs (Vignesh Iyer 87, Sham Vikram 82; Raja Guru 6/69).
Abisek, Manav crack tons
Centuries by S Sri Abisek (124) and Manav Parakh (135 not out) helped City XI bag a lead of 192 runs over Combined Districts in the drawn match of the U-14 City & Combined Districts trophy held at Stag grounds. City XI won on first innings lead.
Brief scores: Combined District 126 in 61.4 ovs (Manav Parakh 4/35) drew with City 318/7 in 80 ovs (Sri Abisek 124, Manav Parakh 135 n.o; Akki Shravanth 5/22).
27 share lead
As many as 27 players took the lead with 3 points each at the end of the third round of the 16th Adyar Times Open FIDE-rated chess tournament, being played at the Montfort Indoor Stadium, Santhome Higher Secondary School. The leaders include top seed P Saravana Krishnan and International Masters Ramnath Bhuvanesh and Ramnathan Balasubramaniam. Four more rounds remain in this Swiss format event.
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