PANAJI
The Goa women's team emerged as winners while the men's team finished third at the 31st Senior National tennis-ball cricket championship at Kanyakumari.
In the final, Goa women beat Western UP by five wickets. Goa fielded first to restrict the opposition to 53-2 in 8 overs before chasing down the target with five wickets in hand. Deesha Kambli produced an all-round performance, first taking 8-1 and then scoring 24 in the chase.
Deesha was named as Best batswoman and Best Player of the Championship.
Earlier, Goa women beat Chattisgarh by five runs in a closely fought semi-final. Goa scored 43 in 6 overs before bowlers Madhu Giri (11/2), Deesha (10/1) and Sonali Datekar (10/1) combined to restrict the opposition. The team was led by Preeti Gaonkar and was assisted by Arti Kurtarkar and coached by Nilesh Naik.
Meanwhile, the Goa men had to be content with a third-place finish as they lost to Mumbai in the semi-final.
