Women’s Challenge Cup 2018: Supernovas prevail in last-ball thriller

MUMBAI: It was not an ideal audition in terms of viewership, but the women’s exhibition T20 had the perfect finish as the Supernovas prevailed in a last-ball thriller against Trailblazers at the Wankhede on Tuesday.

Despite being scheduled ahead of the first qualifier of IPL 2018, the stands appeared empty when the historic clash got underway before some fans finally made their way in as the game progressed.

Alyssa Healy started proceedings in the perfect manner by cutting Anuja Patil for a boundary off the first ball. While skipper Smriti Mandhana cracked two boundaries in three balls after that, Megan Schutt got rid of her countrywoman Healy immediately to round off the second over.

Mandhana didn’t last long either as her opposite number Harmanpreet Kaur took a spectacular catch at mid on to reduce the Trailblazers to 21/2. The procession continued with Schutt making another breakthrough in the following over. Replays clearly showed that she had overstepped, but shockingly the third umpire asked Beth Mooney to make the long walk back to the pavilion. With Deepti Sharma falling three overs after the conclusion of the powerplay, the onus was on Suzie Bates and Jemimah Rodrigues to resurrect the innings. The duo added 45 runs in seven overs and had set themselves up for an onslaught in the final four overs before Anuja finished off her spell with a much-needed wicket after having an ordinary day with the ball.

The wicket deprived them of any momentum at the death as Trailblazers eventually finished with just 129 on the board. After noticing the pattern in the first innings, the Supernovas opted to make the best use of the new ball as stroke-making appeared to be difficult once the ball got softer. Mithali Raj and Danielle Wyatt raced to 40 in the first five overs to begin the chase with a bang, and the English batter then welcomed Ekta Bisht to the crease with a six as well. Bisht then found a lucky breakthrough with Mithali mistiming one tamely to short cover before Meg Lanning rounded off the powerplay with a boundary to get off the mark.

Brief scores: Trailblazers 129/6 in 20 overs (Suzie Bates 32, Jemimah Rodrigues 25; Ellyse Perry 2-20) lost to Supernovas 130/7 in 20 overs (Danielle Wyatt 24, Mithali Raj 22; Suzie Bates 2-16, Poonam Yadav 2-21) by three wickets.