India's top stars get ready for international action

India Green, led by Jhulan Goswami, captured the Women's Twenty20 Challenger Trophy this week as India's leading female stars prepared for a busy international schedule.

Goswami's side beat India Blue by 24 runs in the final thanks to an all-round performance, which helped defend its total of 125-9 as it restricted the opposition to 101-7 in 20 overs. Poonam Raut smashed 42 runs and Priyanka Roy followed it up with 32 while Goswami and Soniya Dabir finished with two wickets apiece.

In the group stages, India Red defeated India Blue by five wickets in the first game, but lost to India Green in the second by seven wickets. The Blue team, led by Reema Malhotra, then fought back convincingly in the third match to defeat the Green team by seven wickets. With all teams on equal points each, run-rate was brought into play to determine the finalists.

There were a number of impressive performances, most notably Sulakshana Naik's unbeaten 66 runs in 48 balls and Goswami's figures of 3-13 both for India Green. Wicket-keeper Anagha Deshpande posted 48 runs in 50 balls playing for the Blue team, while the top batter in the Reliance Mobile ICC Women's ODI Championship, Mithali Raj, also posted a neat 41 for the same team against India Red.

The domestic event played an important role in players' preparations for India's home series against England next month, playing five ODIs and three Twenty20 games against the world champions.

This will be followed by the ICC Women's World Twenty20 in the West Indies in May this year. India finished semi-finalists in the ICC Women's WT20 2009 in England after losing to New Zealand by 52 runs and will be looking ahead for a better run in the Caribbean event.