Toss – Won by Velocity and elected to bowl first
1st Innings Summary – Priya Punia and Chamari Athapaththu opened for Supernovas and the former perished early in the 5th over after being caught by Veda Krishnamurthy on Shikha Pandey’s ball. Athapaththu was lucky to get a lifeline on the second ball of next over as Mithali Raj dropped an overhead catch. The young Jemimah Rodrigues, who walked-in at number 3 for Supernovas, did not take much time and started playing beautiful shots from the word ‘go’.
Spin attack was introduced immediately after the batting powerplay and Chamari was finding it quite difficult to score, especially against experienced Ekta Bisht. An unsuccessful caught behind review was also taken by Velocity in 10th over wherein the opener missed the slider but the sound of bat hitting the ground just provoked the wicketkeeper to ask for a review to the skipper.
Finally Athapaththu’s struggle came to an end in 13th over when she was stumped by Sushma Verma off Amelia Kerr’s googly. Rodrigues on the other hand continued her heroics and reached her fifty off a four in just 31 balls. She got two lifelines in 16th over and made sure that she capitalizes the opportunity to the fullest and went on to score 77not out and stayed till the end.
Although, Amelia Kerr got another wicket in 19th over but Supernovas where able to put up a competitive 142 runs on-board by the end of 20th over.
2nd Innings Summary – Supernovas skipper Harmanpreet Kaur introduced spin attack from the first over itself. Both the spinners, Radha Yadav and Anuja Patil proved the confidence shown by her captain right and removed both the openers early in consecutive overs. Right-handed batter Danielle Wyatt and captain Mithali Raj walked-in at number three and four respectively and the former started playing her shots from the very beginning thus showing the level of confidence she has been having all throughout this series.
Unlike other teams, Supernovas have been electrifying and were constantly showing some excellent fielding efforts in the field. Harmanpreet made two superb efforts to catch out Wyatt but the fortunes favored the later on both the occasions.
Both the batters were well set by the end of 10th over and the scoreboard read 68-2 with Danielle placing another magical innings alongwith classic Raj. The game turner moment came on the third ball of 12th over when Poonam Yadav provided the much-needed breakthrough to her team and bowled out deadly Wyatt.
Post that, Mithali and Veda krinamurthy went into defensive mode and never picked up the pace to accelerate the run-rate even after settling well before the death overs. It looked like they just wanted to qualify for the finals and never bothered to win the game. With Raj’s four off the fourth ball of 19th over, Velocity were through to the finals and by winning the match by 12 runs, Supernovas also secured their place in the final.
Player of the match – Jemimah Rodrigues for her unbeaten 77-run innings in just 48 deliveries which included ten 4s and a six
Other Remarkable Performances –
- Poonam Yadav (Supernovas) – 4-0-13-1
- Shikha Pandey (Velocity) – 4-0-17-1
- Amelia Kerr (Velocity) – 4-0-21-2
- Danielle Wyatt (Velocity) – 43(33) (Four 4s and two 6s)
Brief scorecard:
Supernovas – 142/3 (20 overs)
Velocity – 130/3 (20 overs)
Result – Supernovas won by 12 runs
‘Gully’ cricket player and close observer of Indian Cricket team and it’s matches. Straight forward and still socially admirable personality. Strong belief in teamwork and possess high leadership skills.