Anuja Patil’s century and twin half-centuries from Jemimah Rodrigues and skipper Smriti Mandhana give West Zone the upper hand against Central Zone going into the final day.
Central Zone was bundled out for 245 after their skipper Sneh Rana won the toss and opted to bat first against West Zone in the Senior Women’s Inter Zonal Multi-Day Trophy. Punam Raut (84 off 209 balls), skipper Sneh Rana (42 off 97 balls), and Mona (28 off 49 balls) were the top performers with the bat for Central Zone in the first innings.
Anuja Patil (27.3-6-75-5), Radha Yadav (24-4-55-3), and Sayali Satghare (7-0-24-2) were the top performers with the ball for West Zone. The West Zone openers Devika Vaidya and Riya Chaudhari got off to a solid start and the duo saw the rest of the first day’s play through without being separated. The openers continued to build on their solid start and stitched a 66-run opening stand before Dayalan Hemalatha picked up the wicket of Riya Chaudhary to provide the first breakthrough for Central Zone.
Devika Vaidya soon followed her back to the pavilion to provide the 2nd breakthrough for Central Zone. Wicket-keeper batter Yastika Bhatia joined Jemimah Rodrigues at the crease and the duo stitched a 24-run partnership for the 3rd wicket before they lost a couple of wickets in quick succession. Anuja Patil joined Jemimah Rodrigues at the crease with West Zone at 98/4 in the 25th over and Jemimah Rodrigues retired hurt after getting a good start to her innings. Radha Yadav joined Anuja Patil and the duo stitched a massive 164-run partnership for the 5th wicket before skipper Sneh Rana picked up the wicket of Radha Yadav to provide the 5th breakthrough for Central Zone.
Skipper Smriti Mandhana joined Anuja Patil at the crease and the duo stitched a 30-run partnership for the 6th wicket before Poonam Yadav picked up the big wicket of Anuja Patil to provide the 6th breakthrough for her side. She completed her well-deserved century before getting dismissed. West Zone was eventually bundled out for a total of 356 as they lost their last four wickets for just 64 runs. Anuja Patil (122 off 120 balls), Jemimah Rodrigues (69 off 97 balls), Devika Vaidya (52 off 58 balls), and skipper Smriti Mandhana (50 off 52 balls) were the top performers with the bat for West Zone.
Poonam Yadav (25-2-116-7), Dayalan Hemalatha (11-0-44-1), and skipper Sneh Rana (16-3-77-1) were the top performers with the ball for Central Zone.
West Zone leads Central Zone by 111 runs. The Central Zone openers Punam Raut and wicket-keeper batter Nuzhat Parween weathered the storm, stitching an unbeaten 68-run opening stand and seeing the day without being separated. Central Zone still trails West Zone by 43 runs and the game is slightly tilted towards West Zone leading into the final day’s play.