With an unbeaten century, captain Smriti Mandhana helped India Blue to an eight-wicket win over India. Red in the opening match of the Women’s Challenger Trophy in Indore.
After restricting the opposition to a modest 199, the India Blue captain helped her team chase down the 200-run target with 23 balls to spare.
Captain Smriti Mandhana won the toss for India Blue and opted to bat first. Mandhana scored 58 runs off 74 balls opening the batting, while Mona Mesharam smashed 63 runs to take India Blue to 207/9 in 50 overs. India Green skipper Anuja Patil was the pick of the bowlers along with Asha S as they picked three wickets apiece. Shikha Pandey and Ekta Bisht also chipped in with one wicket each.
Feels great for our India Blue team to win the Challenger Trophy. It has been an honour to be captaining the side @BCCIWomen #ChallengerTrophy #BCCI #Women pic.twitter.com/8EoNHE0XwK
— Smriti Mandhana (@mandhana_smriti) January 8, 2018
However, a dismal batting display by India Green saw them being bundled out for 174 as they lost the final by 33 runs. C Prathyusha bagged four wickets for 23 runs as she ran through the lower order. Openers Jemimah Rodrigues and Punam Raut were the top scorers for India Green as they scored 43 and 88 respectively.
Raut was run out before Rodrigues was caught by Prathyusha. The rest of wickets fell for 40 runs with Rajeshwari, Tanusree Sarkar, Mona and D Hemalatha grabbing one wicket each.