Scoring error costs Jharkhand women's Under-19 team in T20 championship pre-quarter-final

The Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) has filed an official complaint with the BCCI over errors that contributed to their defeat to Uttarakhand in the pre-quarter-final of the women's Under-19 T20 championship in Nagpur last week.

Chasing 135, Jharkhand were 127 for 7 at the start of the final over, needing another eight runs to win. They scored three runs off the first three balls, bringing the equation down to five runs required off three deliveries. The turning point came off the fourth delivery, when Lakshmi Kumari's run-out while attempting a second run led to an error by the official scorers.

Jharkhand had completed one run before the dismissal. However, the scorers recorded only the run-out and failed to credit the completed run, leaving Jharkhand needing five off the last two balls on the official scoreboard, instead of four.

Uttarakhand then bowled a wide, reducing the target to four off two balls. Another run-out while the batters attempted a second run left Jharkhand needing three off the final delivery, with one wicket remaining, according to the official score. But in reality, they needed only two.

Jharkhand were unable to complete the chase, suffering another run-out while attempting a second run off the final ball. They were credited with one run, but the scoring error proved decisive: the official result showed Uttarakhand winning by one run, whereas correctly recording the completed run off the fourth ball would have left the scores level.

The defeat ended Jharkhand's campaign in what was their first appearance in the knockout stages of the women's Under-19 competition (Elite).

"This was the first time Jharkhand had qualified for the knockouts of the women's Under-19, so the result is extremely disappointing," head coach Jaskaran Singh told Cricinfo. "Had this been a league game, the situation may have been different. For players in particular, tournaments like these are extremely important.

"We hope the matter will be looked into so that we can prevent such errors again. We even got the video of the final over checked within the team before lodging a complaint, and it was very clear that the scorers had made a mistake. We immediately brought it to the match referee Anupa Narvekar's attention after the presentation."