Railways emerged winners from the elite group of Women’s one-day tournament 2016-17. The Mithali Raj-led team won all their three matches in the super league phase to finish at the top of the table and claim the title while Maharashtra finished as runners-up.
The Elite Group - A comprised of Maharashtra, Delhi, Baroda, Hyderabad and Goa. While Maharashtra won all four games of the league phase to qualify for the Super League, Delhi qualified on the basis of net run rate after winning two of their four games.
The Elite Group - B comprised of Madhya Pradesh, Railways, Andhra, Punjab and Mumbai. MP finished at the top of their table with two wins from four games while Railways finished at the second position. They had won one match while there was no result in three of their matches and points were equally split.
The Mithali Raj-led team then dominated the super league with comprehensive wins against Maharashtra, MP and Delhi.
In their opening game in the super league, Railways set Maharashtra a 171-run target and bowled the opposition out for 91 to win by 79 runs. Electing to bat, the Raj-led team scored 170 for six with the captain top-scoring for her side. Her 36 along with useful contributions by the rest of the lineup including Harmanprret Kaur's 35 helped Railways to a modest total in the game. Poonam Yadav then led the attack to help the team to a win. She claimed four for 15 while, Ekta Bisht picked two and Niranjana Nagarajan and Kavita took a wicket each.
In their second game, Railways beat Madhya Pradesh by 10 wickets after bowling the opposition out for 71. After MP opted to bat, Bisht and Harmanpreet claimed three wickets apiece while Poonam Yadav took two to bowl the Nidhi Buley-led team out in 41.3 overs. Railways openers - Paramit Roy (26*) and MD Thirushkamini (41*) then chased down the target in 22.5 overs to claim victory.
In their last game against Group A table-toppers, the top-order propelled Railways to a respectable 265 to set up the game. Opener Punam Raut led the lineup with a 136-ball 102 while MD Thirushkamini and the skipper scored 68 and 62 respectively to set Delhi a 266-run target. Poonam Yadav (three for 33), Rajeshwari (two for 12) and Ekta Bisht (two for 12) then bowled Railways out for a paltry 126 to bowl the team to a 140-run victory.
