Led by Yastika Bhatia, India A secured an easy seven-wicket victory in the final of the Senior Women's T20 Challenger Trophy against India D at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur on Saturday. The Poonam Yadav-led side chased down 144 runs for the win and did so in 19 overs, led by some powerful batting from the wicketkeeper-batter.
After India D won the toss and opted to field first, seamer Renuka Singh got the wicket of Shivali Shinde. Renuka returned in the fifth over to claim another wicket to send top-order batter Disha Kasat back to the pavilion.
It was then the partnership between opening batter Nuzhat Parween and all-rounder Harleen Deol that helped India A overcome the early wickets and put up a defendable total. The two shared a 105-run partnership for the third wicket before Parween was dismissed off Renuka’s delivery, scoring fifty off 43 deliveries.
Yastika and Jasia Akhter started the chase for India D and sailed through the first 10 overs, sharing a 70-run opening stand, with the latter doing most of the work. After Akhter’s wicket, Bhatia got going. Jemimah Rodrigues, who joined her after the first wicket, could not make an impact in the game and ended up losing her wicket cheaply.
Dayalan Hemalatha also failed to go big as Yastika kept going and scored a major chunk of runs during the chase, with wicketkeeper-batter Sushma Verma assisting her in building a composed partnership for the fourth wicket.
Yastika stole the show and put up a terrific performance on display. She notched up 80 runs off 56 deliveries, including 12 fours and a six, and remained unbeaten till the end of the chase to clinch a title win for India D. After starting off slow, she went berserk and kept finding gaps at regular intervals so as to cut the chase short. She hit a brilliant boundary in the penultimate over to finish off the chase in style as India D bagged a massive seven-wicket win.
