Seventeen overs, nine ducks, and a team total of 2

Seventeen overs, nine ducks, and a team total of 2 – Nagaland’s innings in the ongoing BCCI Women’s Under-19 One-Day League and Knockout Tournament makes for one of the more incredible scorecards in cricket. Their opponents, Kerala Under-19s, needed only one legal delivery to win the game.

Even more remarkable was the manner of Nagaland’s collapse. The two runs they scored – one off the bat of opening batsman Menka and another in the form of a wide – came before the start of the sixth over, as they effectively went from 2 for 0 to 2 all out in 11.4 overs. Four of the five Kerala U-19 bowlers did not concede a run in the match, with Aleena Surendran being the only one to break that pattern. Minnu Mani picked up four wickets, including three in the 11th over for returns of 4-4-0-4.

Low scores and odd bowling stats have been a frequent occurrence in the tournament, including during the regional qualifying stages. Nagaland had made it to the 12-team Super League stage after finishing second in the preceding Under-19 North-East Championship. In that tournament, too, a match they featured in, against Manipur, had 136 wides. Bihar, the other side to qualify for the Super League, were skittled for 21 runs by Bengal in a match in Jamshedpur on Friday. Before Friday, the lowest total in the tournament was 17 by Meghalaya, incidentally, against Nagaland.

This was the first time that Nagaland and five other north-eastern states of India – Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim – were cleared to participate in the BCCI’s Under-19 women’s tournament along with Bihar, through the addition of a new tournament specifically for these states. Mizoram, however, did not field a team in the regional stage due to paperwork issues regarding their affiliation.

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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