Road to the semi-finals: How Railways, Bengal, Baroda and Vidarbha made to the top 4 of Senior Women’s T20 Trophy 2019
The Senior Women’s T20 Trophy is on its last leg. The Super League followed the round-robin stage and now we have the semi-finalists. From the 37 teams that participated, 4 teams have emerged on top. And the 4 teams are – Railways, Bengal, Baroda and Vidarbha. Let’s have a look at the journeys of the semi-finalists of the tournament –
Bengal:
Bengal has topped the Super League Group A table. They were initially placed in Group E in the league stage. They accumulated 28 points and won all the 7 games that they played. They won comprehensively over Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. They also defeated Saurashtra and Delhi by quite a margin. Goa and Tamil Nadu gave them a tough fight. They had a close match against Maharashtra which they won in the last over.
In the Super League stage too, Bengal outperformed their group mates. They won 4 out of the 4 games that they played. Their road to semi-finals saw them winning over Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh comfortably. They had a 12-run win over Andhra and defeated Vidarbha by 7 runs to qualify for the semis.
Standout players: Gayatri Mal, Prativa Rana, Rumeli Dhar, Gouher Sultana, Mandira Mahapatra, Richa Ghosh and Shrayosi Aich were the standout performers from their side.
Railways:
The next unbeaten team in the tournament is the Railways. Railways were always head and shoulders above their league mates, winning matches comfortably and thrashing weaker opponents. They dominated in almost all their matches, giving standout performances in every game. They were placed in Group B in the league stage and defeated every opponent that they faced. Railways defeated Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Rajasthan and Sikkim while Haryana and Vidarbha gave them good fights.
Placed in the Super League Group B, they met Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Baroda and Maharashtra, and defeated them by quite a margin.
Standout players: Mithali Raj, Punam Raut and Mona Meshram gave significant contributions to the team’s wins in the earlier part of the tournament while Nuzhat Parween, Swagatika Rath, Asha Sobhana, Sneh Rana and Preeti Bose were good in the Super League stage.
Baroda:
Placed in Group C in the league stage, Baroda finished behind Karnataka in the points table. They won 4, lost 1 while one match had to be abandoned. They defeated Hyderabad, Pondicherry, Karnataka and Nagaland while succumbed to Mumbai in Round III by 53 runs.
In the Super League, they were placed in Group B. They won 3 of the 4 matches that they played, losing the match against Railways. Baroda emerged victorious over Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Himachal to qualify for the semifinals.
Standout players: Binaisha Surti, Jaya Mohite, Palak Patel, Jenita Fernandes, Radha Yadav, Tarannum Pathan, Tanvir Sheikh, Yastika Bhatia and Shalini Sharma were the standout performers.
Vidarbha:
Vidarbha was the second-best team in Group B during the league stage. They won all their games except the one against the Railways. They had dominating wins against Sikkim, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir. Against Haryana and Odisha too, they fared well. They lost to Railways by 11 runs in a close Round IV match.
Vidarbha made to Group A of the Super League. They had a very close contest with Uttar Pradesh to rank in the second position. Both the teams had won 2 and lost 2. At the end, Vidarbha qualified for the semi-finals as they had won the latest match against Uttar Pradesh by 2 runs which was a nail-biter. Vidarbha also won over Karnataka by 3 wickets. Andhra and Bengal were the teams that defeated Vidarbha.
Standout players: Nupur Kohale, Latika Inamdar, Bharti Fulmali, Kanchan Nagwani, Vaishnavi Khandkar, Disha Kasat and Komal Zanzad were the prominent players from the team.
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