Railways turned in a solid performance to beat Odisha in the semi-final of the Women’s T20 Trophy on Monday.

The Sneh Rana-led Railways team put on 159 after electing to bat first. Given that they put on 131 runs for the opening wicket, it seems like they had sold themselves a bit short in the end.

S Meghana scored a fine 84 off 63 balls but Nuzhat Parween (55 off 51) was unable to force the pace during the partnership.

In reply, Odisha’s innings got off to a fine start with the openers, Madhuri Meheta and Kajal Jena, putting on 60 off 42 balls. But their wickets proved to be the death knell for the team.

They just couldn’t recover the momentum and lost the match by 35 runs. Rana was in fine form with the ball and even though she took just 1 wicket, she conceded just 14 runs in her four overs. Swagatika Rath (2/23) and Tanuja P Kanwer (2/25) were very effective too.

In the first semi-final, Maharashtra put in a fine performance to get the better of Baroda after winning the toss and restricting their opponents to 121/7. They then chased down the total easily to win by six wickets.

Images courtesy BCCI TV