Toss – Won by Supernovas and elected to bowl first
1st Innings Summary – Lea Tahuhu started with a wicket-maiden for Supernovas by sending back Velocity’s opener Hayley Matthews for a silver duck. Soon, Anuja Patil got rid of in-form batter Danielle Wyatt by getting her stumped by Taniya Bhatia behind the wickets. On the last ball of third over, it seemed that Anuja Patil had dropped Shefali Verma on Tahuhu’s ball but the replays showed that the fielder was in complete control while taking the catch and immediately threw it out of celebration. Then, Velocity’s skipper Mithali Raj and Veda Krishnamurthy played some positive cricket and the team’s scoreboard read 35-3 at the end of batting powerplay.
But owing to some really brilliant glove work by wicket-keeper Taniya Bhatia, Veda was stumped out in medium pacer Sophie Devine’s first over. Soon, Raj departed after playing an under pressure shot and giving a simple catch to mid-on fielder as Natalie Sciver claimed her maiden yet most crucial wicket.
With top-order batting line-up collapsing too early, Velocity desperately needed a partnership to reach a respectable total. This partnership happened between wicket-keeper batter Sushma Verma and all-rounder Amelia Kerr and their 71-run stand was finally broken by Poonam Yadav in 19th over. With Verma hitting the first and the only six of their innings in the final over, Velocity were able to give a respectable 122-run target to the Supernovas to win.
2nd Innings Summary – Chasing a modest total with a strong and deep batting line-up, Supernovas lost Chamari Athapaththu in the 2nd over as Ekta Bisht made a full-length dive in the deep and swiftly threw the ball to the keeper to deny a third run to the batter and complete the run-out too. Priya Punia on the other hand was timing the ball well and hit Shikha Pandey for three 4s in 3rd over. With Jemimah Rodrigues playing skillfully on the other end, Supernovas were comfortably placed at 33-1 after six overs.
Playing her maiden game, Devika Vaidya bowled a top-class ninth over conceding just two runs and forced the two aggressive batters to remain quite. The fruit of the pressure built up by dot balls was reaped on the last ball of 10th over when Rodrigues while trying to hit a straight drive, gave back a return catch to Amelia Kerr. Priya Punia too could not held her nerves back and got stumped out on the very first ball of 11th over just after the strategic time-out.
Medium-pacer Jahanara Alam added to the party of Velocity as she removed Natalie Sciver and Sophie Devine in quick succession and leaving Supernovas 64-5 by the end of 14th over. Now, the entire onus of scoring rested on the strong shoulders of Harmanpreet kaur who did not spare any bowler, seemed to be hitting shots at will and played a classic innings take her team out of the danger zone single-handedly and got out only in the last over when the team needed just seven runs off the last four balls.
Radha Yadav played a heroic cameo in the end and hit the winning four on the last ball to begin the celebrations of being the Women’s T20 Challenge’s champion.
Player of the Match – Harmanpreet Kaur for her brave and game-changing 51-run knock in just 37 balls which included four 4s and three sixes
Player of the Series – Jemimah Rodrigues making 123 runs in 3 innings including a half-century, 17 fours and a six
Other Remarkable Performances –
- Sushma Verma (Velocity) – 40(32) (three 4s and a six)
- Amelia Kerr (Velocity) – 36(38) and 4-0-29-2
- Jahanara Alam (Velocity) – 4-0-21-2
- Lea Tahuhu (Supernovas) – 4-1-21-2
- Sophie Devine (Supernovas) – 4-0-19-1
Brief scorecard:
Velocity – 121/6 (20 overs)
Supernovas – 125/6 (20 overs)
Result – Supernovas won by 4 wickets
‘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.