Baroda, Oct 10: India Red beat India Blue by two wickets to lift the Women’s Challenger Trophy on October 4th at the Motibaug Cricket Ground. The Women’s Challenger Trophy was played from October 1- 4, 2011 between India Blue, India Red and India Green.

Chasing 180 to win, India Blue, led by Jhulan Goswami ,were bundled out of 138 runs in 43.1 overs in the 50 overs-a-side match. The entire batting line-up, with the exception of opener Poonam Raut and Harmanpreet Kaur, failed to post double-digit scores. Raut managed 18 runs while Kaur anchored the Blue’s innings with a valiant 78 runs off 98 deliveries.

Archana Das and Poonam Yadav ran through the Blue’s innings with three wickets each while Amita Sharma picked two. Yadav was the pick of the bowlers for the Red’s claiming three scalps for 19 runs.

Earlier, batting first, India Red led by Amita Sharma posted 179 for the loss of eight wickets. Although, they lost opener Madhuri Mehta early in the innings, opener and wicketkeeper Karuna Jain scored 37 runs. Lower down the order, Sharma’s 56 and 34 runs by AP Das helped the Red’s reach a modest total.

Nooshin Al Khadir was the leading wicket taker for the Blues claiming three wickets for 29 runs while Goswami, Monika Das and Gouhar Sultana and Veda Krishnamurthy picked one each.

Brief score: India Red 179/8 in 50 overs (Amita Sharma 56, Karuna Jain 37, Nooshin Al Khadir 3/29) beat India Blue 138 all out in 43.1 overs (HH Kaur 78, Poonam Yadav 3/19) by two wickets