Nuzhat Parween's half-century guides India Blue to an easy win

Opening the run-chase, Nuzhat Parween scored a half-century and another opener Shafali Verma scored a quickfire 37 off 30 which guided India Blue to win the first game of Under-23 One Day Challenger Trophy comfortably. Both Parween and Verma added 53 runs within 11.3 overs before Verma's dismissal. Arundhati Reddy provided with the first breakthrough to her side, India Red.

Reddy then dismissed Minnu Mani for a duck in the same over. After her dismissal, Nuzhat Parween added 35 runs with captain Devika Vaidya and later 36 runs with Tanusree Sarkar. However, they lost a couple of wickets in quick succession where Arundhati Reddy took a four-wicket haul. While the lower order added the rest of the runs, India Red gave away 15 extra runs; which helped India Blue to reach the target within 45.2 overs.

Earlier in the game, India Red won the toss and chose to bat first. They lost their opener S Meghana for 6 while the other opener CH Jhansi Lakshmi scored mere 10. Captain Harleen Deol tried to steady the ship with Tejal Hasabnis (11) and later with Arundhati Reddy (17) before her dismissal for 46.

Later, R Saha scored 21 and S Meena scored 19, helping their side to put up 149 on board before they were all out with one ball to spare. Simran Bahadur, Tanuja Kanwer and Tanusree Sarkar bagged 2 wickets each while Devika Vaidya and Minnu Mani took 1 each for India Red and restricted them within a below par.

Brief Score:

India Red 149 all out (49.5) (Harleen Deol 46, Simran Dil Bahadur 2/20) lost to India Blue 152/7 (45.2) (Nuzhat Parween 51, Arundhati Reddy 4/25) by 3 wickets