Odisha win first ever Women’s blind cricket tournament

Odisha registered a comprehensive 87-run victory over Karnataka to win the Women’s national T20 tournament for blind title at DDA Sports Complex Siri Fort on Thursday. Odisha won the toss and chose to bat first, after which they made a huge score of 218-8 in 20 overs. In this innings, Captain Lina Swain (B2) and Padmini Tudu (B1) played a decisive role as Padmini scored 16 runs while Lina scored 33 runs to save her team after initial struggle and helped the team to reach 200+ total score.

Odisha Blind Team (@blind_cricket
Odisha Blind Team (@blind_cricket)

Earlier in the innings, the in-form batters for Odisha, Basanti Hasda and Manu Purty were bowled out in the very first deliveries of the match. But Padmini and Swain rescued their team and won the joint Player of the match award for their amazing batting and fielding. The top scorer for Odisha was Phula Soren (B3) with 39 runs. In bowling, for Karnataka Varsha (B1) took 2 wickets and Deepika (B3) went on to take 1.

“I am very happy to play an important role in winning the title for our team. It was a great tournament for us, we enjoyed a lot. I thank Cricket Association for the Blind in India for introducing this competition. This tournament provided us a platform to showcase our talent,” said captain Lina Swain.

In the second innings, Karnataka failed to climb the mountain, as they were stopped by Odisha on just 131-8 in 20 overs. For Karnataka, Renuka Rajput (B2) scored 25 runs and B.Jayalaxmi (B3) scored 30 runs which laid a strong foundation but after they got out, the other batswomen failed to maintain that.
In Blind Cricket, there are a total number of 11 players in each team: at least four players who are totally blind (classified as B1) and three partially blind players (B2), and up to four partially sighted players (B3). B1 players wear a white wrist band or one stripe on the upper arm may also be used. B2 players wear a red wrist band or two stripes on the upper arm may also be used. B3 players wear a blue wrist band or three stripes on the upper arm may also be used.

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Brief scores: 1st Innings- Odisha: 218-8 (20 overs) Phula Soren (39), Lina Swain (33), Varsha U 2-47 (4 overs)
2nd innings- Karnataka: 131-8 (20 overs), Miss Jayalaxmi (30), Renuka Rajput (25), Kavya N.R 1-18 (3 overs)
[CAVI Odisha Women’s beat Karnataka Women’s by 87 runs]

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