Smriti Mandhana or Harmanpreet Kaur? Trailblazers or Supernovas? A new champion or a hat-trick of title triumphs?
In what would be a rematch of the last league-stage game of the Jio Women’s T20 Challenge, Trailblazers will square off against Supernovas in the Final at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday.
The two teams played out a last-ball thriller in the on Saturday and it was the Harmanpreet Kaur-led Supernovas who came out on top by two runs to make it to the final, edging out Velocity on the back of a better NRR, to set up the final showdown against Smriti Mandhana and Co.
While Trailblazers lost their last game against Supernovas, there were a couple of positives for them from that game, including the impressive batting display from Deepti Sharma and Harleen Deol. When it seemed that the match had tilted in Supernovas’ favour, with Trailblazers needing 56 off the last five overs, the Sharma-Deol pair almost took their side home with an aggressive 52-run stand.
Although Mandhana did not score at a brisk pace, Trailblazers, who did not have to score many in the first game against Velocity, will be pleased that their captain, going into the final, spent some time in the middle with the bat.
Coming to Supernovas’ batting, while skipper Harman had another 30+ score, it was Chamari Athapaththu who set the ball rolling for her side. The Sri Lankan left-hander, who had scored 44 in the opening game, slammed a stroke-filled 67 off 48 balls against Trailblazers and Supernovas will once again bank on her to come good with the bat in the final.
Supernovas will also be pleased with the way the duo of Radha Yadav and Shakera Selman performed with the ball. The two scalped two wickets each to seal their team’s two-run win. While Selman’s twin strikes in the seventh over halted Trailblazers’ charge, Radha kept her nerve in the final over, defending nine runs.
For Trailblazers, they too have a lot of firepower in their bowling department. While Jhulan Goswami will spearhead the bowling unit, Trailblazers have three fine spinners in their ranks in the form of the world number one WT20I bowler Sophie Ecclestone, who scalped four wickets in her team’s clinical win against Velocity, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Deepti Sharma. Additionally, they also have Salma Khatun and Harleen Deol in the mix.
With both the sides high on quality and match-winners, we have a cracker of a final on our hands.
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