Nine ducks, 16 maidens, all out for 2: Nagaland U-19 women suffer shocking capitulation against Kerala

Mumbai: It’s a scorecard one is not likely to come across too often, irrespective of the level of contest. In a barely-believable collapse, Nagaland’s Under-19 women’s team were bowled-out for a paltry two runs against Kerala in the ongoing BCCI Women’s Under-19 One-Day League and Knockout Tournament at the JKC college ground in Guntur. [caption id=“attachment_4146133” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative photo. Getty Images[/caption] Making their debut in the tournament, Nagaland’s farcical innings lasted just 17 overs—16 of them maidens—with the solitary run off the bat being scored by opener Menka, who returned as the top, and the only scorer, from her side. She faced 18 deliveries—the most in the innings. Priyanka remained not out on nought after facing three deliveries. The other run came off a wide delivery from, while opening the bowling, Aleena Surendran, who was the only bowler not to take a wicket. She finished with figures of 3-2-2-0. Sourabhya P, who shared the new ball with Surendran, bowled six maidens for two wickets, while captain Minnu Mani took four wickets for no run in her four overs. Sandra Suren and Biby Sebastin bagged a wicket apiece in their two overs. Kerala chased down their target of three off the first legal delivery they faced; the first runs came off a wide bowled by Deepika Kaintura. The next ball was duly smashed for four by Ansu S Raju to end Nagaland’s misery. Kerala coach Suman Sharma hailed her girls for their effort. “It was a great win. We have been playing good cricket but today girls were exceptional. Nagaland was not a great side and they were scoring 20’s, 30’s and 40’s but bowling them out for two was brilliant. Credit goes captain Minnu and other girls in the squad,” the coach told TOI. Despite the win, Kerala failed to qualify for the last-four stage, as they could win just two of five games they played. Earlier this month, an astounding 136 wide balls were bowled in a match of the same tournament between Nagaland and Manipur in Dhanbad. The match, a part of the inaugural NE-Bihar U-19 one-day competition being organised by the cricket board, saw Manipur bowling 94 wide balls while Nagaland were a shade better with 42. Nagaland won the match by 117 runs to log four points, but it was learnt that the girls from both the Northeastern states were at times not even able to land the ball on the pitch. With inputs from PTI