The Hyderabad men have had an up-and-down season this year, but their women counterparts are speeding downhill, crashing from one loss to another in a free-fall. On Thursday, Hyderabad succumbed to a 168-run loss against Group C table-toppers Railways in the BCCI Senior Women’s One-day Tournament in Ranchi.
This is Hyderabad’s third loss out of four games, and they are locked at the seventh place in the eight-team group. Only Tripura are worse than Hyderabad.
If the bowling was lackadaisical then the batting was spineless. On the whole, it is turning out to be a disastrous outing for the girls in Ranchi.
Railways skipper Ekta Bisht won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first. However, Railways did not have a great start as they lost CH Jhansi Lakshmi (8) and Shipra Giri (9) with 22 on the board.
But wicketkeeper-opener Nuzhat Parween and D Hemalatha strung a 90-run partnership for the third wicket to lay the foundation for a big score. Hemalatha was the dominant partner as she scored 53 off 63 balls while Nuzhat made a 43-ball 31.
After Hemalatha’s departure, Nuzhat and Bhavana Goplani added 77 off 75 balls for the fourth wicket. Bhavana contributed 46 off 56 balls to the partnership.
Nuzhat finally fell for a composed 83 off 106 balls and Simran Dil Bahadur remained unconquered on 38 off 33 balls as Railways made 277 for seven in their 50 overs.
Hyderabad, on the other hand, never got going as the lost wickets at regular intervals. None of the top batters stayed enough at the wicket to make a difference. Vanka Pooja waged a lone battle with a gritty 71-ball 57 with 10 fours but it was too little to matter in the final analysis. Hyderabad were bowled out for 109 in 37.4 overs. Only three batters reached double figures.
Brief scores: Railways 277/7 in 50 overs (Nuzhat Parween 84, D Hemalatha 53, Bhavan G 46, Simran Dil Bahadur 38no) beat Hyderabad 109 /in 37.4 overs (Vanka Pooja 57, Simran Dil Bahadur 3/24).
