PANAJI
The Goa women’s team emerged runners-up at the 36th Senior National Tennis Ball Cricket Championship, held at Nagpur recently.
In the final played on January 22 at the St Mary Sports Academy ground, Goa went down to Uttar Pradesh by 17 runs. Batting first, Uttar Pradesh posted 54/1 in six overs, with Purva Gaude returning figures of 1/5. In reply, Goa were restricted to 37/4, with Pradnya Pednekar scoring 15 not out and Annaliz Gomes adding 5.
Goa had earlier defeated Pondicherry in the quarter-finals after chasing down 27/2 with ease. Disha Kambli starred with two wickets, and later remained unbeaten on 15, while Pratiksha Kerkar made 10 not out.
In the semi-finals against Maharashtra, Goa scored 48/1, with Disha Kambli hitting 31 not out. Maharashtra were held to 40/3, as Goa won by eight runs.
The team was led by Deesha Kambli, with Haresh Parsekar as coach, Nilesh Naik as chief coach and Deepika Naik as team manager. Twenty-eight teams participated in the championship.
