MCA launches its first cricket tournament for women, final to be held on 18th Jan

On Thursday, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) launched a special limited-overs tournament for women in Mumbai -Women’s Challenger Trophy. There will be four teams in the competition –Team Yellow, Team Red, Team Blue and Team Orange. The final match is scheduled on January 18th at the Sachin Tendulkar Gymkhana in Kandivali.

Secretary of MCA, Sanjay Naik said, “This is the first time that the MCA is conducting such a tournament on this large a scale. The idea to start it was given by our Apex Council member (ex-India women’s cricketer) Samantha Lobatto. It’s due to her efforts that the tournament has been launched. It’s a good tournament where Mumbai’s women cricketers can showcase their skills.”

At the Apex Council meeting held before the tournament, Sachin Tendulkar asked the members to take steps for the advancement of women’s cricket. “Tendulkar had suggested to us to give more exposure to Mumbai’s women cricketers,” said Naik.

On Thursday, Team Orange defeated Team Yellow at SRT-1. Batting First, Team Orange scored 183/2 in 40 overs, with Nidhi Dawda 53 (100), Manjiri Gawde 48* (45) and Hummaira Kazi 41* (30) being the leading run-scorers. In reply, Team Yellow scored 133/6 in 40 overs with Achal Vajalu 30 (95) and Pooja Yadav 35 (52) being the top run-scorers. Team Orange’s Fatima Jaffer took three for 19.

SRT-2 in Kandivali witnessed a close match where Team Blue beat Team Red by two wickets. Team Red scored 109 (all-out) in 37.4 overs, Sayali Satghare took three wickets for 17, and Parakshika Naik took three wickets for 13 for Team Blue. Team Blue met the target in 35.2 overs with Riya Chaudhari being the highest scorer with 69 for 98 balls and Jagravi Pawar scoring 32 runs out of 60 balls.