Supernovas overcame some tough competition from Velocity in the final of the Women’s T20 Challenge in Pune on May 28 to win the title and the winning captain Harmanpreet Kaur shared her opinions on the tough and exciting finale.
The match went right down to the wire with Supernovas clinching the win by 4 runs in the final over. Being asked to bat first after Velocity captain Deepti Sharma won the toss, Supernovas put on 165/7 in 20 overs with Deandra Dottin top-scoring with 62, while Harmanpreet made 43 and Priya Punia made 28.
For Velocity, Kate Cross, Deepti Sharma, and Simran Dil Bahadur took two wickets apiece.
In reply, Laura Wolvaardt held the Velocity innings together as they lost some wickets in the middle overs. With Simran Bahadur for company, they needed 34 runs off the final two overs to win. Wolvaardt and Simran fought valiantly, the latter hitting three fours in a row in the 19th over to reduce the equation to 17 needed off 6 balls.
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In the final over, bowled by Sophie Ecclestone, Wolvaardt hit a six first ball, but the no.1 ranked bowler in white-ball came back strongly, bowling yorker length deliveries took Supernovas to the win by 4 runs, in the end, making them Women’s T20 challenge captain.
"My heartbeat was normal. I knew this game was going to be like that only and I was prepared for the game to go down to the wire. Great effort by the girls. We never felt we won the game and we knew anything could happen,” Harmanpreet said after the game.
"First over was not in our favor but I knew if we get two early wickets, the match can turn for us. At the right moment, we were getting the wickets. When Pooja started, we planned something else, but she wasn't able to bowl what we were thinking. It happens.
The way Sophie bowled it was outstanding. She was quite confident. If you have a bowler who is so confident, half the job is done. I was just giving her placement and she was bowling the way she wanted to bowl. When you have teammates who always want to play each and every moment, you do that whether it's in your favor or not,” she added.
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Player of the match as well as Player of the Tournament for her 44-ball 62 and two wickets for 28 runs, Deandra Dottin said she felt good to be a part of this event.
Velocity captain Deepti Sharma lamented the fact that her team couldn’t build a partnership in middle overs.
"Laura (Wolvaardt) batted well and so did Simran. We had the batting strength to win the game the way we played the last two games. We just said 'see the ball, hit the ball'. We performed well but we left some runs out in the middle. The bowlers did well to pull it back after the 16th over,” she said.
(PTI inputs)
