India-A to face off against India-D in the final

India-B registers an exciting four-wicket win over India-C; the latter finishes its campaign losing all its matches

They hunted as a pack.

Fine spells from medium-pacers Anjali Sarvani and Amanjot Kaur and spinners Sahana Pawar and Saika Ishaque, who shared eight wickets evenly among them, not just brought the high-flying India-D to the ground in a Women’s T20 Challenger match here on Thursday, but took India-A to the final.

In the final to be played on Saturday, the two teams will come face to face once again. India-B’s exciting four-wicket win – with just a ball to spare – against India-C wasn’t enough. In the three-way tie, India-D and India-A had better net run rates.

India-C lost all its matches, but it may have fancied its chances after posting 140 for six, a more-than-decent total. A fine, fighting knock from Devika Vaidya (41 n.o., 27b, 6x4), however, dashed those hopes.

Left-arm seamer Komal Zanzad had struck twice in her second over – her first victim was the dangerous Shafali Verma – to derail India-B’s chase at the beginning. But, useful knocks from skipper Deepti Sharma (26, 18b) and Humaira Kazi (20, 20b) kept their side very much in the game.

Then Nishu Choudhary (24, 15b) lent excellent support to Devika as the pair added 36 crucial runs for the sixth wicket. Two runs were required off the last two balls when wicketkeeper Tania Bhatia hit Saranya Gadwal for a couple over the packed in-field on the off-side.

The scores: