Railways once again showed why they are one of the strongest outfits in women’s domestic cricket as in the repeat of last year’s finals, they defeated Karnataka by four wickets in a well-contested final and laid their hands on the elusive Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy 2023 for a record 14th time. The Senior Women’s One Day Trophy features over 37 teams across different Indian states battling it out, and it is one of the premier competitions in the domestic circuit.
A look at Railways’ journey to the finals has been nothing short of phenomenal. Finishing second on the points table in Group A with 24 points, they made it into the Pre-Quarter Finals without much hassle on the back of dominant performances. Registering a crucial win versus Tamil Nadu in the pre-quarterfinals, they continued their prolific run by defeating Kerala in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, they handed Uttarakhand a loss and marched to the finals in style. Karnataka, on the other hand, similar to Railways, ended up second on the table with 20 points in hand in Group B and qualified for the pre-quarterfinals. Defeating Madhya Pradesh comprehensively, the quarterfinals saw them get the better of Delhi in what was a thriller of a match, and the semi-finals versus Rajasthan was another performance of repute as they made it to the finals to clash against the heavyweights, Railways.
The finals witnessed quite a thrilling contest between the two stellar and in-form teams. Karnataka was put to bat first and were dismissed for an unconvincing 163 in 49.4 overs. The biggest positive for Karnataka was G Divya, the star batter who made a gritty 69 off 116 balls even as wickets kept falling around her; her composure and zeal to score runs was unparalleled. Railways had the likes of Tanuja P Kanwer scalp three wickets, while Swagatika Rath and Preeti Bose chipped in with two wickets apiece as they had a good bowling outing. Railways, however, chased down the total in 47.3 overs on the back of Renuka Choudhari and Mona’s 20 and 29, respectively and even as Karnataka kept trying to create chances, T Sarkar’s 25 coupled with Dayalan Hemalatha’s 38* and the duo of Kanwer and Rath scoring handy cameos of 32 and 12* paved the way for a memorable and victory for Railways.
All in all, the tournament was an exhibition of quality cricket and put a statistical lens to gauge performances; we had Jasia Akhter (501 runs), Priya Punia (494 runs), D Vrinda (477 runs), Mona Meshram (442 runs) and Ayushi Garg (413 runs) as the top five run-getters in the tournament. While the top five wicket-takers were Parunika Sisodia (21 wickets), Poonam Yadav (21 wickets), Swagatika Rath (20 wickets), S R Patil (20 wickets) and Kanchan Nagwani (19 wickets) who amazed everyone with their performances.
With the Women’s Premier League auctions fast approaching, this tournament did provide a lot of exposure and attention to the domestic cricketers who can stake their claims in different franchises, and certainly, there are a lot of exciting and talented players who will grab any or all opportunities that come their way.
I am a first year postgraduate student pursuing a MA in Media and Communication Studies at Christ University, Bengaluru. I am a podcaster, blogger and an avid cricket fan. When not glued to cricket matches, you can find me submerged in books and thinking about cricket all the time.
