A spirited half-century by opener Manya Verma helped Ludhiana beat Patiala by 75 runs on Tuesday in the opening league match of Group D in the Inter-District Women U-19 One-Day Limited Overs Cricket Tournament. The match was played at the GRD Academy ground on Hambran Road here.

Batting first, hosts Ludhiana scored 141 in 47.3 overs. Opener Manya waged a lone battle with a fluent 59 off 82 balls, studded with 10 hits over the ropes. She received little support from other batters, Chinmey Jain (17), Divya Rajput (14), Samridhi Saini (10) and Seerat Chaudhary (8 not out).

Patiala bowlers shared the spoils, with Naina Gupta returning figures of 3 for 39 while Harnaaz, Dimple Choudhary and Ishtha Babbar claimed two wickets each.

Chasing the target, Patiala were bundled out for 66 in 29 overs after Ludhiana bowlers gave a disciplined performance. Harsimrat Kaur scored 39 off 61 balls while the rest of the batting line-up failed to offer resistance.

Ludhiana’ s bowling attack was led by Samridhi Saini, who claimed 3 wickets for 11 runs in five overs. Varsha Rani and Ananya bagged two wickets each, while Chinmey Jain picked up one wicket. A run-out by Samiksha Dorwal further dented Patiala’s innings.

In the second match, Ludhiana will face Sangrur on July 25 in Sangrur. — OC