West Indies all-rounder Diandra Dottin helped Supernovas win an unprecedented third Women’s T20 Challenge title with a four-run win over Velocity in a thrilling final here on Saturday.
Dottin played a 44-ball 62 at the top of the order and helped the Supernovas post 165 for seven after being called in to bat. With the ball, he took two for 28 in his four overs and was instrumental in restricting Velocity to 161 for eight.
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South African batsman Laura Wolvaardt almost single-handedly took Velocity away with a sensational 65 not out off 40 balls, which included five fours and three sixes.
Wolvaardt, the only batsman in the tournament to score two half-centuries, smashed boundaries in the death overs to lift Velocity’s hopes of a resounding victory.
Number 10 batsman Simran Bahadur (20 not out off 10 balls) also hit three consecutive fours in the final over. Velocity needed 17 runs in the final over but left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone (2/28) conceded just 12 runs to win the match, while Wolvaardt hit a six off the first ball.
If England women’s Ecclestone made life difficult for Velocity batsmen in the first half of the run chase, Australian leg-spinner Alana King (3/32) did the same at the back end. King was on a hat-trick after dismissing Sneh Rana and Radha Yadav in successive deliveries in the 16th over.
Supernovas had won the first two editions of the tournament in 2018 and 2019 and lost to Trailblazers in the finals in 2020. The tournament was not organized last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Velocity was the runner-up in 2019.
Velocity started their run chase with a bang with openers Shafali Verma (15) and Yastika Bhatia (3) scoring 28 runs in the first two overs but this proved to be the only time the Deepti Sharma-led side were ahead in the match. Was.
They faced the shambles to bat with half of them for 64 in the 11th over. They were reduced to 38 for three, and things got worse from there.
Earlier, Dottin made full use of the early relief to make a blistering half-century and propel the supernova.
30-year-old Dotin was dismissed for 13 by Sneh Rana in the fourth over off Deepti Sharma, and he made a 44-ball 62 to pay Velocity for that costly mistake, which included a four and four sixes.
The veteran campaigner put on 73 runs for the opening wicket with Priya Punia (28) and 58 runs for the second wicket with in-form skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (43 off 29 balls).
Captain Deepti Sharma, Kate Cross and Simran Bahadur took two wickets each for Velocity, while Ayabonga Khaka took one wicket each. Supernovas could only manage 34 runs in the last five overs for the loss of five wickets.
Dottin and Punia gave Supernovas a decent start, scoring at a brisk pace and reaching 46 for no loss in the powerplay.
Punia hit a six over the cross in the third over but his teammate Dotin did even better in the sixth over bowled by Rana. When Punia was out in the 10th over with a six off Simran Bahadur, Poonia was getting stronger.
The tournament’s highest scorer, Kaptan Kaur came out and started collecting runs straight away, hitting Rana for a six in the 12th over followed by two sixes in the 14th over bowled by Yadav. In the next over, Velocity captain Deepti hit a four while bowling Dotin.
Supernovas suffered a batting collapse in the death overs as they lost four wickets in addition to just 11 runs.
Pooja Vastrakar (5) was clean bowled by Ayabonga Khaka in the 17th over, before Cross took two wickets – Kaur and Sophie Ecclestone (2) – in the next over with a span of three balls.
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