Photo Credit: Sydney Thunder
The inaugural HomeWorld Women’s Thunder Nation Cup, held at Blacktown International Sportspark earlier this month, has been heralded by the club as a great success.
Following the success of the men’s competition over the last five years, the women’s tournament brought together participants from across NSW to represent three teams – India, Rest of the World Blue, and Rest of the World Yellow – focusing on the celebration of diversity, culture, friendship, and the promotion of women’s cricket.
Despite wayward weather threatening to interfere, all three matches were completed before a cultural performance for participants and families to enjoy.
The first match of the inaugural tournament saw the Rest of the World Blue team take on the heavily fancied India. Batting first India posted a formidable 98-run total, led by Ira Patel (24) and Aanya Siingh (19), while ROW Blue’s Lakshmi Rajadurai collected 2-13. In reply, India bowled impressively to restrict the opposition to 66 and claim a 32-run victory.
In the second match of the day, ROW Blue took on ROW Yellow, with strong batting performances from ROW Blue’s Samira Mitchell and Vani Bhadana lifting their team to a total of 78 runs.
The pick of the bowlers for ROW Yellow were Yanee Bhatia, claiming two wickets and Gunisha Garg with tidy figures of 1-6. ROW Blue then fought hard with the ball; however, fell short as ROW Yellow charged ahead thanks to notable contributions from Gunisha Garg (21) and Lily Hresczuk (19).
The final match of the day set up a thrilling contest as the two undefeated teams, India and ROW Yellow went head-to-head.
On the back of strong individual performances from both Mayher Singh (27) and Ira Patel (17), India mounted a 77-run total, with young gun Lily Hresczuk the pick of the bowlers for ROW Yellow, claiming figures of 2-18.
Tight bowling from Aanya Siingh (2-9), Ira Patel (1-4) and Lavena Rampal (1-2) prevented the ROW team from adding to their total, falling 23 runs short of victory and seeing India crowned inaugural champions of the HomeWorld Women’s Thunder Nation Cup.
The club would like to extend its thanks to the participants from all teams as well as Sydney Thunder Major Partner HomeWorld, for their contribution to communities beyond the cricket field and continued support of the Thunder Nation Cup.
