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The defending champion Railways have thrashed Karnataka women convincingly by eight wickets with 27.4 overs to spare in the Women’s One-Day Trophy 2021 final. This is Railways 13th title.

In the title clash, Railways captain Mithali Raj won the toss in overcast conditions at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and elected to field first.

Karnataka were bundled out for 74 in 38 overs against Railways. The star with the ball for Railways was Renuka K Singh. The right-arm pacer was devastating with the new ball and returned with figures of 4/14 from seven overs. Namma women fell like a house of cards against her. Niki Prasad, batting at No 8, was the top scorer with 21 runs from 72 deliveries.

In response, Railways overhauled the meager total in 22.2 overs with eight wickets in hand as opener S Meghana top-scored with 36 off 43 balls. Nuzhat Parween (20 off 38) and D Hemalatha (17 off 23) also ensured their side win comfortably. India’s batting star Mithali Raj, who received the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award a few days ago, tweeted: Superb effort by the girls #IndianRailways to win the #SeniorOneDayTrophy for the season 2021-22. Good contributions from everyone throughout the league and knockouts. Super proud.”

The semifinal matches of the BCCI senior women’s One-Day Trophy were washed out at the KSCA Alur Stadium on Thursday without a ball being bowled. Hosts Karnataka and Railways entered the final by virtue of a better net run-rate against Punjab and Bengal respectively.

In this tourney, Karnataka women were on song till the final encounter. Veda Krishnamurthy-led team defeated Uttar Pradesh, Pondicherry, Chhattisgarh, Saurashtra and Baroda from Elite group E to directly qualify for the quarterfinals, where it beat Madhya Pradesh.

This was Karnataka’s maiden appearance in the final after the change in format. They have played the Plate final in the past. They would be disappointed to not pull this off.

Brief scores

Karnataka: 74 all out in 38 overs [Niki Prasad 21, Meghna Singh 2/21, Renuka K Singh 4/14, Sneh Rana 2/10]

Lost to Railway: 76 for 2 in 22.2 overs [S Meghana 36, Nuzhat Parween 20*, D Hemalatha 17*, Sahana S Pawar 1/19, Shreyanka R Patil 1/15] by 8 wickets.