Kiran Navgire played a brilliant half-century innings. (BCCI Photo)
Trailblazers vs Velocity Women’s T20 Challenge: Velocity has made it to the final where it will face the Supernovas captained by Harmanpreet Kaur.
Trailblazers defeated Velocity by 16 runs in the Women’s T20 Challenge match played at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Thursday, but still could not make it to the final. Trailblazers posted a mammoth score of 190 runs for the loss of five wickets with openers S Meghna (73 runs) and Jemima Rodriguez (66 runs) and a 113-run partnership for the second wicket between the two. The team of Velocity after playing full 20 overs could only score 74 runs for the loss of nine wickets. Kiran Navgire played a brilliant innings for Velocity and scored a half-century. Even after losing the match, Velocity’s team has reached the final as they had to score only 159 runs to go to the title match. At the same time, Trailblazers had to win this match by at least 32 runs to go to the final. Velocity will face Supernovas in the final.
Kiran Navgire scored 69 runs in 34 balls. In his innings, this batsman hit five sixes and as many sixes. Apart from brilliant attacking knocks from Meghna (47 balls, 7 fours, 4 fours) and Jemima (44 balls, 7 fours, 1 six), Velocity’s poor fielding contributed to this score of 190 for five, which the players took many chances. Drop an easy catch.
Such was the beginning of velocity
Chasing the target of 191 runs, Velocity’s team got off to a good and fast start, but they got the first blow too early. Yastik Bhatia got out after scoring 19 runs. He was dismissed by Salma Khatoon on a total score of 36. His wicket fell on the last ball of the fourth over. Shefali Verma got out on the last ball of the sixth over. He scored 29 runs in 15 balls with the help of five fours.
Kiran showed her strength
By the time Shefali got out, Kiran had got her feet and then she played an aggressive game. He completed his fifty in 25 balls. This is the fastest fifty scored in this tournament. His quick innings had decided the victory of the team and also made it to the final. Meanwhile, however, the team lost wickets from the other end. Laura Wolvaardt (17), Deepti Sharma (2), Sneh Rana (11) were dismissed early. On the fourth ball of the 17th over, Dunkley stumped Kiran.
From here again Velocity continued to lose wickets and remained away from the target.
Trailblazers started like this
Earlier, after being invited to bat, Meghna made a good start in the very first over by hitting Kate Cross (1 for 27 runs in three overs) by scoring two consecutive fours, but the first blow to the trailblazers was captain Smriti Mandhana on the score of 13 runs. 01), which was caught in the third over by Simran Bahadur (2 for 31 runs in three overs) on the ball of the cross.
Meghna and Jemima’s century partnership
After this, S Meghna batted aggressively and made a century partnership with Jemima and laid the foundation for a big score. Meghna hit two sixes on Radha Yadav over the extra cover and on the site screen. He hit Shefali Verma for the third six of his innings over his head. Jemima also continued to bat aggressively by playing Meghna well and during this time both of them completed their half-centuries. Meghna scored a half-century in 32 balls with six fours and two sixes. Then in the 13th over, he sent the first ball of Shefali Verma for a six and also completed the century of Trailblazers’ score. Jemima also made her fifty in 36 balls with six fours.
Rana brought success
Sneh Rana (one wicket for 37 runs) ended the wait for the wicket for Velocity. In the 15th over, Meghna’s innings came to an end after Rana’s first ball was sent for a six and the second for a four. Meghna was caught by the cross on the boundary line in an attempt to play her ball up. Soon Jemima also reached the pavilion, trying to sweep Ayabonga Khaka’s delivery in the 17th over, she caught Rana at short fine leg. Simran Bahadur took two wickets in the form of Sofia and Hayley in the last over. For the Trailblazers, Hayley Mathews contributed 27 runs (16 balls, 4 fours) and Sophia Dunkley contributed 19 runs in eight balls with two fours and a six.
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