KOCHI: Imagine you are a spectator who arrived an hour late to watch a one-day match. You might miss some part of the action and that’s it. For people who came late for the Kerala-Nagaland tie in the BCCI Women’s U-19 One-day League and Knockout tournament at Guntur on Friday, it was worse. By the time they would have reached the ground, the affair was done and dusted. The match ended in just over an hour!
To call it a match is an overstatement. It was more like a march. Hurriedly organised and poorly attended. The total runs that came in the tie was just seven. Unbelievable, but true. Nagaland were baptised into mainstream cricket only recently by the BCCI after the Lodha Committee recommendations had asked the BCCI to include Northeastern states in their accredited tournaments. They were bowled out by Kerala for just two runs- and one of the runs came via a wide ball. And Kerala cruised to the target in one delivery!
Electing to bat, Nagaland’s lone run with the bat came from opener Menka, who survived 18 balls to emerge as top-scorer.
After the wide and then Menka’s single run, Nagaland innings saw an inconceivable collapse as they lost 10 wickets for nought. Of this, nine batsmen were out for a duck. Kerala bowled 17 overs and out of this 16 were maidens.
Skipper Minnu Mani was the pick of the bowlers as she scalped four. Making their debut in the U-19 women’s league, Nagaland featured rookies and most were from the academy run by Hokaito Zhimomi, who is also the coach of the side. “For most players, it’s their first season. We don’t have proper cricketing facility back home. We are not worried about the bad outing and are looking to the future,” the coach reportedly told the media after the match.
Kerala said, though, they fancied a win, they expected better from Nagaland. “We were hoping for them to score 35-40 runs. That’s what they have been doing in previous matches. But this collapse was unexpected,” said Kerala coach Suman Sharma. Minnu said there were no demons in the track and it was a batting surface. “We bowled at the stumps and the fielders were exceptional. The close-in fielders played a big role,” the spinner said.
shan.as@newindianexpress.com