East Zone won a battle among equals against South Zone by 31 runs inthe CricInfo Rani Jhansi Trophy Women’s tournament at the SouthernRailways Ground in Chennai on Thursday

Natarajan Sriram06-Apr-2000East Zone won a battle among equals against South Zone by 31 runs inthe CricInfo Rani Jhansi Trophy Women’s tournament at the SouthernRailways Ground in Chennai on Thursday.Having to score 190 for their first win, the South openers Vanitha (58off 83 balls) and Manjula (18 off 29 balls) started in a spiritedfashion. The injured Vanitha especially picked both Jhulan and Babushafor three bouddaries in their first overs. Though south proceeded to ascore of 33 rin the 6th over, the East was equal to the task on thefield. Their fielding looked much improved after he first four days ofthe competition.The first wicket to fall was that of Manjula, in the ninth over whenKavitha had her bowled when trying to plat across. Then Karuna joinedKavitha, and Kavitha carried on with her stroke filled innings. Shekept finding the gaps at will and the boundaries as well. She bisectedthe field with some good shots in front of the wicket and was neverafraid to go over the top. She reached her half-century with the helpof her seventh boundary hit past the long on.Then Karuna, trying to emulate her partner, pulled seema singh oversquare leg and the very next ball was castled trying the same shotwhen it was not there to be hit. The match was heading south?s way,when in a needless run out saw the end of Vanitha’s innings. Thiscreated panic in the South ranks and there was hesitation in therunning and atrocious shot selection by the batswomen.Immediately after the fall of Vanitha, Harsha gave a simple catch tokavitha at point. Then there was the usual procession of players withSudharani, Kamakshi, Laxmi, Nivedita, Nooshan and Mamta all falling bythe way side. The ninth wicket pair of Nooshan and Mamta adding 26runs in 8.5 overs prolonged the inevitable. But the match was welltruly pocketed by East in the 46th over with a difference of 35 runs.Earlier, at the start of the match, both the East and South weresearching for their first win in the tournament. The east openersNeetu Singh (31 off 47 balls) and Kavitha Roy (70 off 145 balls) got agood start after winning the toss and electing to bat. Thanks to somedespicable bowling and fielding standards set by South the two added58 runs in 19.1 overs. Neetu in particular kept sending the balls tothe out field for some easy runs and especially Swarnalaxmi. After afruitful opening partnership Neetu was adjudged leg before off thebowling of Nooshan.This made way for Chandrabarti (42 off 76 balls) to join Kavitha inthe 20th over. The two started milking the bowling by predominantlyemploying the sweep early on during the partnership. They capitalizedon the inferior bowling of south, which never threatened to lookpenetrative. Moreover the wide gaps present in the field gave ampleopportunities for Chandrabarti and Kavitha to pick the south attackfor some easy runs. Singles flowed from their bats so much so that aboundary came by only after 18.4 overs.Kavitha who was the backbone of the East innings reached her halfcentury in 129 balls. The second wicket partnership betweenChandrabarti and Kavitha, of 100 runs in 24.4 over came to an end whenChandrabarti was stumped off nooshan for 42 runs. Then east lostKavitha almost immediately for a neatly compiled 70 runs in 145 balls.The start of the end overs saw the south Zone fielding go from bad toworse. The south conceeded far too many over throws. But in trying toincrease the scoring rate Rumeli, Geetha, Babasha and Dhanmanjari wereall run out due to some silly running and the east innings finishedwith 189 for 8 in the allotted 50 overs.