It may have been a rare day off for the IPL, but not for the thrills of Twenty20 cricket.
The women are carrying on from where the men paused to take a breather, as the T20 Challenge got off to an exciting start at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Monday.
Even the prospect of a Super Over was possible when Jhulan Goswami came on to bowl the last ball. She held her nerve to deny Harmanpreet Kaur, one of the most feared batters in women’s cricket, a win.
Supernovas had required three off that final ball. All they could do, however, was attempt a bye, but ’keeper R. Kalpana ran Lea Tahuhu out after dashing off to the wicket. Trailblazers prevailed by two runs.
Heartbreak for Harmanpreet
Harmanpreet, who failed to connect that ball, wide off the off-stump, was gutted. But, it was the four fours she scored in that final over against the vastly-experienced Jhulan that brought her side so close.
Nineteen was needed from that last over, because England left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone had given only two in the 19th, in which she also trapped Sophie Devine lbw for 32. The New Zealander had added 48 for the fifth wicket with Harmanpreet (46 not out).
But, the night belonged to the other captain. Smriti Mandhana’s 90 (67b, 10x4, 3x6) was largely responsible for the competitive total by Trailblazers, after being put in.
She took her time to settle in, but once she did, the Supernovas bowlers had little clue on how to contain her, let alone get rid of her.
In the second over, she saw her opening partner Suzie Bates depart.
The World No. 1 batter in women’s T20 was caught, inside the circle on the off-side by Jemimah Rodrigues, after bit of a fumble, off off-spinner Anuja Patil.
Supernovas, however, had to wait for another 17 overs before they could get another wicket. The young Harleen Deol, who made her international debut less than three months ago, gave her captain excellent support as the duo added 119 for the second wicket.
They had begun sedately, as the PowerPlay produced just 25 runs. And the score was 52 for one at the halfway mark.
Shifting gears
Before long, Smriti changed gears in her own charming way. She timed the ball sweetly and hit it strong enough to clear the boundary, as she did against leg-spinner Poonam Yadav — dancing down the wicket and lofting over extra-cover.
After losing Harleen — caught comfortably at long-off by Radha off pacer Devine — she had a chance to go for a hundred in the final over. But she fell 10 short, as she failed to clear Radha over the long-on boundary and was caught by Chamari Athapaththu.
As it turned out, she had done just about enough for her side.
Scoreboard:
TRAILBLAZERS Suzie Bates c Jemimah b Anuja 1 (4b) , Smriti Mandhana c Atapattu b Radha 90 (67b, 10x4, 3x6) , Harleen Deol c Radha b Devine 36 (44b, 3x4) , Stefanie Taylor run out 2 (2b) , Deepti Sharma b Radha 0 (1b) , D. Hemalatha (not out) 2 (2b) ; Extras (b-1, lb-8): 9; Total (for five wkts. in 20 overs): 140.
FALL OF WICKETS 1-11 (Bates, 1.3 overs), 2-130 (Harleen, 18.2), 3-147 (Smriti, 19.2), 4-137 (Deepti, 19.3), 5-140 (Taylor, 19.6).
SUPERNOVAS BOWLING Sciver 4-0-29-0, Anuja 4-1-12-1, Radha 4-0-28-2, Poonam 3-0-25-0, Devine 4-0-27-1, Tahuhu 1-0-10-0.
SUPERNOVAS Priya Puniya c Kalpana b Ecclestone 1 (6b) , Chamari Athapaththu c Harleen b Rajeshwari 26 (34b, 2x4) , Jemimah Rodrigues run out 24 (19b, 4x4) , Harmanpreet Kaur (not out) 46 (34b, 8x4) , Natalie Sciver c Ecclestone b Rajeshwari 1 (4b) , Sophie Devine lbw b Ecclestone 32 (22b, 2x4, 2x6) , Lea Tahuhu run out 0 (1) ; Extras (lb-5, w-3): 8; Total (for six wkts. in 20 overs): 138.
FALL OF WICKETS 1-6 (Priya, 1.3 overs), 2-55 (Jemimah, 7.6), 3-63 (Athapaththu, 10.4), 4-74 (Sciver, 12.3), 5-122 (Devine, 18.5), 6-140 (Tahuhu, 19.6).
TRAILBLAZERS BOWLING Jhulan 3-0-31-0, Ecclestone 4-0-11-2, Deepti 4-0-27-0, Selman 3-0-28-0, Rajeshwari 4-0-17-2, Harleen 1-0-10-0, Taylor 1-0-9-0.
Toss: Supernovas
Player-of-the-match: Smriti Mandhana.
Trailblazers won by two runs .
