The U19 Women’s One Day Trophy has been an exciting tournament so far. The tournament which began on 8th October has witnessed some impressive and record-breaking performances.
In the Baroda vs Assam Game on 12th October, the Baroda team achieved a historic feat by scoring 420 runs in 50 overs. With the help of valiant knocks by two 16-year-olds Dharti Rathod and Atoshi Banerjee, the team achieved the feat of scoring their highest-ever total in a women’s BCCI tournament.
Boroda had a treat witnessing their young guns firing as Rathod and Banerjee stitched a huge partnership of 265 runs off 185 balls for the second wicket. Rathod scored 154 runs in 111 balls at a strike rate of 138.74 while Banerjee hit 128 runs in 112 balls at a strike rate of 114.29.
On her maiden century in BCCI tournaments Banerjee said, “When I walked in to bat, I didn’t have any particular target in my mind. My only aim was to dominate the bowlers and score as many runs as possible. The wicket was also good to bat on.” Echoing her sentiments, Rathod who also scored her maiden century said, “We lost the first wicket early on. When Banerjee walked in, we both had a chat and decided to build a steady partnership. Our plan was to play for all the remaining overs. It’s a great feeling to take your team to a record total in ODI games.”
Baroda's dynamic duo paved the way for what could be their highest team total (420 Runs) in the history of Indian women's domestic cricket. #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/SfO3ANROeE
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) October 14, 2023
The bowlers too shined and bundled Assam out for just 98 runs in 38.2 overs. Arya Mehta was a standout performer. She took 4 wickets for 21 runs at an economy of 2.10 bowling 3 maiden overs. Other bowlers who were impressive were Nrupa Vyas and Riddhi Singh who took 1 wicket each.
The cricketing community at Baroda were all praise for the two rising stars. Heena Patel, head coach of the team said, “I have never seen such innings in junior women’s cricket. Our team has raised the bar of the game and I am happy that our girls stuck to the plan of taking one ball at a time and scoring big. It was a memorable day.”
The head of the Baroda Cricket Association, Snehal Parikh too praised the team and said, “It’s a great day for the Baroda women’s team and the association as our girls played record innings and showed that nothing is impossible.”
Dharti Rathod and Atoshi Banerjee through their impressive performance have shown that the future of women’s cricket in India is extremely bright and that domination on the world scale for the Indian team is just the next step.
(Quotes sourced from Times of India)
Vaishnavi is a passionate author with an unwavering love for cricket, particularly women’s cricket. Her writing reflects her deep admiration for the sport and her dedication to promoting women’s participation in it. When she’s not following the latest cricket matches, Vaishnavi can be found engrossed in books or enjoying movies.