CHENNAI: Skipper Sneha Deepthi led from the front with a swashbuckling 30-ball 54 as South Zone started their campaign in the Senior Women Interzonal T20 tournament with a comfortable three-wicket win against North Zone at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday. In the other two games, West Zone and Central Zone trumped, East and North East Zones, respectively.
Opting to field first, South Zone struck early thanks to Niranjana Nagarajan who removed Priya Punia for 14 runs from 18 balls. Amanjot Kaur helped them revive with a 56-ball 66, taking North Zone to 131/5 in 20 overs. Shikha Pandey took 2/18 while Kerala’s Minnu Mani squeezed in her four overs for just 19 runs.
In reply, A Akshaya got out early but Sneha came out all guns blazing, hitting a boundary at least every three balls on average as she reached her half-century in just 27 balls.
Brief scores: North Zone 131/5 in 20 ovs (Amanjot 66; Shikha 2/18) lost to South Zone 132/7 in 17.2 ovs (Sneha 54; Harleen 4/21); Central Zone 149/5 in 20 ovs (Nuzhat 57) bt North East Zone 51 all out in 18.1 ovs; East Zone 97/3 in 20 ovs lost to (Madhuri 37; Devika 2/20) to West Zone 100/5 in 19.4 ovs (Tarannum 40; Priyadarshini 2/15).