Bangalore: The Indian womens cricket season is not only set to start but is packed with a host of activities. A lot of senior and junior tournaments are scheduled to be held in the month of November and December before the Indian senior squad, to tour New Zealand in January, is announced. That apart, the Womens Cricket Association of Indias (WCAI) Annual General Body Meeting is slotted for the 24th of November. To start off, Indias premier tournament, Rani Jhansi (inter-zonal), will commence from November 21. The tournament will be played over eight days involving seven teams- North, South, East, West and Central zones, and the two institutions, Railways and Air India. November 24 will be a common rest day for all participating teams. Air India is the reigning champion having won the last edition held at Pune. Incidentally, it also won the trophy at Chennai. So it will be looking forward to a hat-trick of wins. However, it has some tough competitors in the field with runner-up Railways posing the toughest challenge. The Railway team boasts of a host of current and former India stars. If Railways hopes to upset Air India a lot will depend on the form world record holder Mithali Raj displays. She is one player who can turn the match on its head. Railways also possess in its line-up India internationals Hemalata Kala, left-arm spinners Neetu David and Deepa Kulkarni, Arundhati Kirkire and wicket-keeper Sulakshana Naik. The Air India team also has a very impressive squad consisting of Anjum Chopra, Anju Jain, Purnima Rau, Jhulan Goswami, Mamatha Kanojia, Rumeli Dhar and a lot of young talented players.The other teams too could throw in a challenge for the title with North and South, fielding talented squads, capable of causing and an upset or two.The inter-zonals will be followed by the senior Nationals in the month of December, which is held in two phases. The first leg is played on a league basis amongst zonal division state teams with the top two teams qualifying from each zone for the knock out stage.Apart form the ten teams from the five zones, the two institutions will join them to make it a field of 12. The juniors are also in for some cricket activity with Nationals to be conducted in the month of December. It is the same format for the juniors with the only change being the absence of the two institutional teams.

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Scorpions, Blues win a match each
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