Pradhan's efforts in vain as India Red secure their second victory

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Yash Lahoti
New Update
Pradhan's efforts in vain as India Red secure their second victory

Shikha Pandey. ©ICC

India Red secured their second consecutive victory beating India Green by 8 runs in the 3rd match of the BCCI Women's T20 Challenger Trophy. As the tradition goes, the captain winning the toss opts to field first and it was the same case today as Krishnamurthy won the toss and chose to field.

There was a change for India Red as Punam Raut opened alongside Deepti Sharma with Harleen Deol dropped down the order. Raut and Sharma started the innings well with a flurry of boundaries before the latter became Gayakwad's first wicket for 19. Gayakwad dismissed Kasat soon as she followed her skipper in the pavilion. Mona Meshram then joined her fellow international Raut at the crease and both of them stitch a 32 runs partnership.

Raut's (25) rather slow innings ended as she became Sushree Pradhan's first scalp for the day. Mona Meshram then tried to resurrect the innings but Pradhan had different plans. She took Meshram's wicket for 31 with Goswami claiming the catch. None of the other batters stayed long enough at the crease as Pradhan took two more wickets of Kanwer and Harleen Deol to record figures of 4/18 in her quota of 4 overs.

India Red finished their innings putting 114 runs on the board. Alongside Pradhan, Rajeshwari Gayakwad picked 2 wickets for 16. India Green needed 115 runs to win.

Things didn't start well for Green as Rodrigues got dismissed on the third ball of the innings giving an easy catch to wicketkeeper Nuzhat Parween off Shikha Pandey. Sushree Pradhan was promoted up the order after her excellent performance with the ball. Both Punia and Pradhan tried their best to chase the score before the former got dismissed in the similar fashion to Rodrigues to Shikha-Parween pair.

Veda Krishnamurthy arrived at the crease with a positive mindset and looked in good touch. She formed a good partnership with Sajana S after losing Dibyadarshini to a run out by Ekta Bisht. She scored 27 with 4 fours to her credit before losing her wicket to Kanwer. Arundhati Reddy after her good performance with the ball in the last game scored 20 in this one off just 14 balls with 2 sixes.

None of the other batters could chase down the remaining score as India Green got bundled out for 106 with 2 balls to spare. There were 4 run outs in the India Green innings with Bisht claiming 2 while Kanwer and Raut scored 1 each. Shikha Pandey picked up 2 important wickets of opener Rodrigues and Punia.

India Red sit on the top of the points table with 2 wins in 2 games. They next face India Blue tomorrow starting 1000 IST.
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