Women’s T20 Challenge: Supernovas beat Trailblazers in thriller, both teams enter final

Radha Yadav of Supernovas had 10 runs to defend in the final over against Smriti Mandhana’s Trailblazers in the final league of the Women’s T20 Challenge 2020 tournament in Sharjah on Saturday. At stake was a place in the final. A loss for Harmanpreet Kaur’s Supernovas would have dumped them out of the tournament. Instead, Radha Yadav bowled a fantastic last over in which she gave away just seven runs as Supernovas defeated Trailblazers by two runs. The result meant that both teams entered the final which will be played on Monday. This meant that Mithali Raj’s Velocity team was out of the tournament.

It was a pulsating match between two evenly matched sides. Harmanpreet Kaur’s Supernovas were given a massive boost by a brilliant 67 from Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu and her partnerships with Priya Punia and the skipper. In response, Trailblazers had contributions from everyone with Deandra Dottin, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma all keeping the side in the hunt. But, in the end, the determination of the Supernovas ensured that both teams entered the final.

Great start from Athapaththu

Supernovas chose to bat and it was Athapaththu who started aggressively with three boundaries and a six off Deepti Sharma. Trailblazers did not help their cause by missing a run-out of Athapaththu and Sri Lanka’s best T20 batter made them pay. Athapaththu responded with another big six off Jhulan Goswami and by the end of the powerplay, Supernovas reached 50. Priya Punia also played a solid role but it was Athapaththu taking the initiative, launching her third six off the bowling of Rajeshwari Gayakwad.

Trailblazers continued to have an ordinary day in the field as Deandra Dottin dropped Priya Punia. However, unlike Athapaththu, Punia struggled to rotate the strike regularly and the pressure told. The 89-run opening stand ended when Bangladesh’s Salma Khatun got Punia out for 31.

Athapaththu notched up her fifty by sweeping Harleen Deol to the square leg fence and she raised the tempo with a four and six in the 16^th over bowled by Salma Khatun. Trailblazers fought back by dismissing Athapaththu for 67 and Jemimah Rodrigues cheaply but Harmanpreet Kaur hit a four and a six in the 19^th over and despite only five runs coming off the last over, Supernovas finished on 146/6.

In response, Deandra Dottin and Smriti Mandhana also started aggressively but they lost momentum in the middle. Dottin fell to her Windies team-mate Shakera Selman for 27 while Richa Ghosh was dismissed cheaply. Mandhana was looking solid at the other end but she failed to score on a consistent basis as her strike-rate dipped below 100.

Mandhana’s slow batting piled on the pressure and it needed some timely hits from Deepti Sharma to keep the match in the balance. Mandhana hit a six off Shashikala Siriwardene to ease the pressure but she fell for 33 to Anuja Patil while Dayalan Hemlatha fell cheaply. Harleen Deol and Deepti Sharma stitched a crucial stand. Harleen hit two fours off Poonam Yadav while Deepti Sharma also hit two fours off Selman in the 19^th over as the equation boiled down to the last over.

Fortunately, Radha Yadav delivered and ensured that they entered the final in thrilling fashion.