Karnataka girls power India to World Cup semifinals

Saturday was indeed a big day for cricket fans, for the Indian women's cricket team trounced the

New Zealand

team in a crucial fixture to claim their spot in the semifinals of the World Cup. The Indian team, which had a great start, lost a couple of matches and had to win this game. Two women from Karnataka, Bengaluru's Veda Krishnamurthy and Bijapur's Rajeshwari Gayakwad, played a crucial role in getting India through to the semis. Veda had a blitzkreig of an innings as she scored the fasted 50 by an Indian woman in the World Cup with a 45-ball 70, while Rajeshwari took a career-best 5/15 to ensure India had a formidable win against New Zealand in the match held at Derby, England.

Rajeshwari Gayakwad
Hailing from Bijapur, Rajeshwari is a bowler to look out for. The 26-year-old player for Karnataka has consistently won many trophies for her bowling. She has four 4-wicket hauls in international one-day internationals and her career-best 5/15 on Saturday will remain something to watch out for always. She is also known to be a bankable player in the T20 format of the game.

Veda Krishnamurthy
Bengaluru girl Veda had an inning to remember for life on Saturday. In her 45-ball 70 runs, she hit two sixes and seven fours to ensure that it was a treat for all those present at the stadium. This innings also has helped her ensure that the selection committee looks at her as a permanent fixture for the middle-order in the women's team.

KL Rahul on Veda
She has always caught the eye of guys when we used to practice, because she used to hit ball very hard. There was some flair about her batting and eve about herself in the way she walked on the field. She was loud in the sense her cricket spoke for herself and yesterday's innings was a testimony to that. It was a treat to watch her, seeing the kind of power she generated with those shots. The best thing is that the innings came at a time when her team needed it the most. It is great to see her coming back in form and this definitely sets up the team very well as they go into crucial matches.