Welcome to the highlights of the Women's T20 Challenge match TBL vs SNO at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune. This was Santadeep Dey , bringing you all the action as it unfolded at the venue.
TRAILBLAZERS VS SUPERNOVAS HIGHLIGHTS
TRAILBLAZERS INNINGS
TBL 114/9 in 20 overs: Renuka squeezes out Dottin's pinpoint yorker. SNO seals the biggest win ever in this tournament - 49 runs.
TBL 113/9 in 19 overs: Vastrakar's direct hit goes in vain. Trailblazers hanging on.
TBL 106/9 in 18 overs: Dottin has been brought into the attack. Harmanpreet is surely in a hurry to finish things off. Gayakwad pulls a short ball over midwicket for four.
TBL 100/9 in 17 overs: Poonam holes out to Harleen at deep midwicket. King strays down leg. Wide. Renuka gets a boundary through long-on as the hundred comes up for the Trailblazers.
Strategic timeout
TBL 94/8 in 16 overs: Renuka and Poonam keep the scoreboard ticking with the singles and the occasional double.
TBL 88/8 in 15 overs: Ecclestone sticks to the tight channels to concede only two off the over.
TBL 86/8 in 14 overs: Jemimah muscles a four over long-on. Harleen, safe as houses, takes another exceptional catch to cut short Jemimah's stay at the crease. Renuka comes to the crease. Supernovas review a caught-behind appeal. But there was clear daylight between bat and ball.
TBL 81/7 in 13 overs: Jemimah hits a boundary after 36 deliveries, which reveals volumes about the TBL innings. The penultimate delivery fetches four leg byes.
TBL 73/7 in 12 overs: Vastrakar gets her fourth wicket as a full toss sees Salma clip one straight to Ecclestone. From 63/1 to 73/7, the chase has unravelled in the weirdest of manners!
TBL 72/6 in 11 overs: Dropped! Ecclestone loses out on the opportunity to have her first wicket as Meghna lets one burst through her fingers at cover. Oh, never mind the last sentence. Ecclestone strikes as the Trailblazers are in absolute disarray now. Richa slices one to Dottin at point. Oh, and it gets worse... Reddy defends and the ball dips and trickles back to Bhatia, who whips the bails off as Reddy looked to strut off for a single. Mind-boggling howler, this one!
TBL 71/4 in 10 overs: Vastrakar bowls a tody over. Only three runs off it.
TBL 68/4 in 9 overs: Three quick wickets find Trailblazers in a whole lot of trouble now. Sharmin steps out, but gets caught in a tangle as King gets one to sneak under the blade and hit the stumps. Gone for a duck.
TBL 65/3 in 8 overs: Punia takes a stunning catch to dismiss Mandhana. Dunkley follows. And it is Punia again, who takes a similar catch to remove the English batter.
Strategic timeout
TBL 62/1 in 7 overs: King starts off with a short ball. Punished! Mandhana rocks back and hammers a boundary to deep square leg. Three runs, Dottin just manages to intervene in the very last moment to save a run. A very late but cheeky shot from Jemimah sees her guide the ball to the fence past third man.
TBL 48/1 in 6 overs: Chandu starts off with a half-tracker and Mandhana goes over the midwicket fielder to pick up four runs. Fired too short and Jemimah splits the field on the offside. So close! Jemimah almost ends up offering a return catch to Chandu.
TBL 39/1 in 5 overs: Mandhana shuffles across and goes for the pull shot off Vastrakar's first ball. The ball, however, dips and loses momentum. Two runs. Vastrakar and Harmanpreet are in the middle of a lengthy, animated conversation. A lot of field changes being made. Matthews digs out a yorker. Matthews, looking to free her arms and go for a drive through the offside, hands a massive edge to Bhatia behind the stumps.
TBL 34/0 in 4 overs: Inside out shot over cover... Matthews picks up another boundary. Matthews finds the gap again with exquisite timing.
TBL 24/0 in 3 overs: The No. 1 T20 bowler vs Mandhana. There is a deep midwicket and long-on in place for Ecclestone. Great use of the feet as Matthews clears the front leg to cart it over mid-on. An inside edge trickles down to the fence. 12 runs of this over.
TBL 12/0 in 2 overs: Meghna gets one to shape into the left-hander. Matthews charges down and whacks the fuller ball through deep cover for a single. Punia puts in a timely dive at cover to save three runs for her team.
TBL 7/0 in 1 over: Mandhana opens the Trailblazer account with a boundary. Puts on her dancing shoes and powers it over the mid-off fielder. Pressure straightaway on the uncapped Karnataka off-spinner. Beats Matthews on the turn off the last ball. For a moment, Chandu thought she had her.
Mandhana and Matthews to open the batting. Chandu has the new ball in hand.
SUPERNOVAS INNINGS
SNO 163 in 20 overs: Janani's decision has been overturned as Ecclestone loses her wicket. Three reds on the DRS means the England international has to take the long walk back. Meghna's lack of pace, while running between the wickets, spells doom. Run out. Chandu, surprisingly, doesn't opt for a review off the last ball as the umpire raises her finger after a confident LBW appeal.
SNO 160/7 in 19 overs: A Maxwellesque switch hit from Vastrakar pierces the field at point and short third for four. Richa holds on to a dolly as Vastrakar gets a top-edge. Ecclestone slogs one to long-on. Harmanpreet has been found short of her crease as another mix-up sees the end of the SNO skipper's stay. There was a call for two and Harmanpreet was already more than halfway down when Ecclestone changed her mind.
SNO 149/5 in 18 overs: As Vastrakar picks up a single to bring up 147, SNO registers the highest team total in WT20C history.
SNO 142/5 in 17 overs: Vastrakar miscues. That hung in the air for quite some time before falling just short of Matthews at mid-on. Another lofted drive albeit through the offside and she is safe this time as well. Back-to-back fours off sweeps from Harmanpreet.
SNO 130/5 in 16 overs: Harmanpreet drills one straight past Salma but Gayakwad makes a good stop, while running in from mid-off. After playing a glorious sweep to midwicket,King picks out Smriti Mandhana at cover. Strategic timeout. Vastrakar to provide support to her skipper.
SNO 123/4 in 15 overs: The softest of dimissals sees the back of Luus, who holes out to Renuka at cover point. King saunters in.
SNO 118/3 in 14 overs: Trailblazers lose a review now as Mandhana goes upstairs for the wicket of Harmanpreet as the LBW appeals fall on deaf ears. Ball tracker shows it would have gone on to miss the sticks. Cut away for four, has Luus.
SNO 110/3 in 13 overs: Harmanpreet gets a boundary. Poonam, who was looking to pitch it on the tramline, bowls another flighted delivery and the SNO skipper sweeps this past backward square.
SNO 102/3 in 12 overs: A little change of line from Salma. Tries coming round the wicket to Harleen, who has lapped this past the fielder stationed at fine leg for a boundary. The 100 comes up for SNO.Supernovas lose a review as Salma gets one to hold the line even as Harleen looks to sweep. This thuds onto the pads and replays suggest this would have gone on to crash into the off stump. Luus comes to the crease.
SNO 96/2 in 11 overs: Harleen uses her feet to skip down the track and drive one to long-on. Harmanpreet gets a single off a looped-up delivery as well. Harleen and Harmanpreet run three as the ball rolls down to the third man area.
SNO 91/2 in 10 overs: Harmanpreet creates some room and cuts Salma through the offside. Nine off the over.
Strategic timeout
SNO 82/2 in 9 overs: Reddy returns. Harmanpreet flicks the ball to the deep for a single. Harleen slices the ball down to third to get one run. Harmanpreet attempts to take command with a shuffle but fails to time the ball over the inner-circle. Reddy feeds the ball outside the off-stump and Harman cuts the ball past point for four runs.
SNO 74/2 in 8 overs: Matthews continues. Matthews cleans up Punia. Punia attempts to pull off the backfoot as Matthews foxes her with a slightly fuller delivery. The ball steams past the bat to hit the off-stump and the Supernovas have lost both openers after their brief flourishes. Harmanpreet gets off the block with two runs and a single. Matthews fends short once again and Harleen whips it away to mid-wicket for four. Short and wide from Hayley and Harleen punches it through cover for another four.
SNO 63/1 in 7 overs: Poonam Yadav begins with a slew of tossed-up deliveries. Punia and Harleen work around the field for singles. Five runs from the over.
SNO 58/1 in 6 overs: Matthews into the attack. A couple of singles for the batters as Matthews maintains a tight line. Harleen charges to loft the ball over the bowler for two runs. Matthews strays down leg and Harleen sweeps the ball fine for four to end the PowerPlay.
SNO 50/1 in 5 overs: Reddy replaces Renuka. Length ball and Dottin heaves the ball away through mid-wicket for another four. Reddy follows up with a dot ball. Slower-ball on length again and the Barbadian hammers the ball over mid-wicket for another six. Mix-up between the openers and Dottin perishes. A direct hit from Sharmin at square-leg to the non-striker's and Dottin's powerful charge is undone.
SNO 39/0 in 4 overs: Gayakwad tosses the ball outside off-stump and Punia eases into a crisp drive through cover for four. Four more as Punia brings out a late-cut to beat the short-third fielder.
SNO 29/0 in 3 overs: Dottin packs some serious punch as she fires two back-to-back slot balls straight down the ground. The last ball is a four as well, Dottin doesn't get this off the meat of the bat but manages to beat the diving mid-on.
SNO 15/0 in 2 overs: Gayakwad extracts decent turn off the hard track, which has an even covering of grass. Angled into the pads and Dottin sweeps it fine. The ball trickles down to the fence.
SNO 8/0 in 1 over: There is a bit of swing on offer as Renuka's second delivery shapes into the right-handed Dottin. Punia shimmies down the track to dispatch Renuka over long-on for the first six of the game.
Umpires Vrinda Rathi and N Janani make their way to the middle. Dottin and Punia will be open the batting for Supernovas. Renuka to get things going for the Trailblazers.
TRAILBLAZERS VS SUPERNOVAS PLAYING XI
TBL XI: Smriti Mandhana (c), Poonam Yadav (vc), Jemimah Rodrigues, Hayley Matthews, Sophia Dunkley, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Arundhati Reddy, Salma Khatun, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sharmin Akter
SNO XI: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Deandra Dottin, Priya Punia, Sune Luus, Harleen Deol, Taniya Bhatia (vc/wk), Sophie Ecclestone, Alana King, Chandu V, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh
WHAT THEY SAID
Smriti Mandhana : I was looking to field. So not really sad about losing the toss. We will try and select the best eleven possible.
Harmanpreet Kaur : We are going to bat first. It is the first game, so we want to play freely. The prep was great. It is now time to deliver. In the bowling attack, there are two experienced spinners, Indian pacers and myself. Looks like a good batting track.
TRAILBLAZERS VS SUPERNOVAS TOSS
Supernovas opt to bat.
TRAILBLAZERS VS SUPERNOVAS PITCH REPORT
"Pitch number nine is going to be used. During the IPL, three games were played on this pitch. Spinners got more purchase then. However, there is an even coating of grass and might not turn as much. It might skid through though, helping the batters as well. Teams may choose to bat first," reckons Deep Dasgupta.
TRAILBLAZERS VS SUPERNOVAS PLAYING XI PREDICTION
TRAILBLAZERS: Smriti Mandhana (c), Hayley Matthews, Jemimah Rodrigues, Sharmin Akhter, Sabbhineni Meghana, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sophia Dunkley, Poonam Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Salma Khatun
SUPERNOVAS: Deandra Dottin, Priya Punia, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Sune Luus, Harleen Deol, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Sophie Ecclestone, Alana King, Mansi Joshi, Meghna Singh
TRAILBLAZERS VS SUPERNOVAS DREAM11 FANTASY TEAM
Wicketkeeper: Richa Ghosh
Batters: Smriti Mandhana, Deandra Dottin(c) , Sabbhineni Meghana, Jemimah Rodrigues
All-rounders: Harmanpreet Kaur, Hayley Matthews (vc) , Pooja Vastrakar
Bowlers: Sophie Ecclestone, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Alana King
Team Composition: TB 6:5 SW Credits Left: 0.0
TRAILBLAZERS VS SUPERNOVAS MATCH PREVIEW
A top-heavy Trailblazers unit will hope to get its Women’s T20 Challenge off to a winning start when it takes on Supernovas in the opening fixture in Pune on Monday.
Led by Smriti Mandhana, the defending champion boasts of a formidable batting arsenal.
The 25-year-old can rely on the services of India teammate Jemimah Rodrigues, and Sabineni Meghana, who impressed with her performances in India’s tour of New Zealand before the Women’s World Cup in March this year, besides Hayley Matthews and Sophia Dunkley who can work their way through the lineup. Richa Ghosh’s ability to finish a match round off this attack.
“We have quite a few top-order batters. We have had a few practice sessions and have tried to assess how each one performs in different situations. We will look to give everybody an opportunity," Mandhana said ahead of the game.
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Harmanpreet Kaur, captain of Supernovas, has a potent lineup at her disposal herself. Deandra Dottin comes in after an impressive run with the bat and ball in the FairBreak Invitational 2022 and aiding her are the likes of Harman and Harleen Deol, whose 235-run haul in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy included a 73-ball unbeaten 112. Pooja Vastrakar is a handy bat with a healthy strike rate while Sune Luus is happy to play sheath anchor if required.
Supernovas also have a lethal spin duo in World Cup finalists and rivals Alana King and Sophie Ecclestone. Dottin’s composure and efficacy in the death will also prove to be useful should the Trailblazers manage a fluent start.
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Mandhana has the assistance of fellow Maharashtra players Aarti Kedar and Maya Sonawane whose growth she says she is heartened by.
“Players like Arati and Shraddha (Pokharkar) make a captain's job easier. They were able to nail their lines but now they can control how the ball goes too. That’s a handy trait in this tournament,” she added.
- Lavanya Lakshmi Narayanan
TRAILBLAZERS VS SUPERNOVAS SQUAD
TRAILBLAZERS : Smriti Mandhana (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Sabbhineni Meghana, Sharmin Akhter, Richa Ghosh (w), Hayley Matthews, Sophia Dunkley, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Salma Khatun, Renuka Singh, Arundhati Reddy, Priyanka Priyadarshini, Saika Ishaque, Shradda Bhau Pokharkar, Sujata Mallik
SUPERNOVAS : Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Muskan Malik, Priya Punia, Taniya Bhatia(w), Deandra Dottin, Harleen Deol, Pooja Vastrakar, Sune Luus, Sophie Ecclestone, Alana King, Ayushi Soni, Mansi Joshi, Meghna Singh, Monica Patel, V Chandu, Rashi Kanojiya
WHERE TO WATCH TRAILBLAZERS VS SUPERNOVAS , IPL 2022 LIVE?
All Women's T20 Challenge matches will be broadcast on Star Sports 1 , Star Sports 1 HD , Star Sports 3 , and Star Sports 3 HD channels in India. Disney+ Hotstar is the official streaming partner.
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