Sabbhineni Meghana played an excellent 47-ball knock of 73 to power the Trailblazers to a 16-run win against Velocity.
The fourth edition of the Women’s T20 Challenge has reached its climax with Velocity and Supernovas making it to the final. The third team, Trailblazers, tried their best to make it to the title clash but their heavy loss in the opening encounter but got knocked out despite a win over Velocity in the final league game.
Sabbhineni Meghana and Jemimah Rodrigues were the stars with the bat for the Smriti Mandhana-led side. Interestingly, the former opened the innings with her skipper and stunned everyone with her batting. She took on the England pacer Kate Cross in the first over of the innings itself and played a wonderful straight drive.
It happened in the fifth ball of the over when Cross delivered a length delivery around off stump to which Meghana just stood at her crease and timed the ball superbly past the bowler. The ball was in the air for a bit but went straight as an arrow as even the umpire had to move from her place quickly.
Meghana had perfectly found the gap and the mid-on and mid-off fielders didn’t have any chance given the timing on the ball. The shot got her going as she ended up smashing 73 runs off just 47 deliveries with seven fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 155.32.
The more you look at this shot, the more fascinating it gets.. pic.twitter.com/IY8nhgvgmz
— Picasso (@6icasso) May 26, 2022
As for the rest of the innings, Jemimah Rodrigues set the stage on fire with her batting. She scored 66 runs off 44 balls at a strike rate of 150 with seven fours and a solitary six. Jemimah and Meghana also stitched a 113-run partnership for the second wicket to set the platform for the lower-order batters to go big in the death overs.
Thanks to their batting and the fireworks from Hayley Matthews and Sophia Dunkley in the end, the Trailblazers managed to post a mammoth total of 158 runs in their 20 overs. Velocity needed to go past 158 to qualify for the final and they could do it courtesy of a sensational knock from Kiran Navgire.
She came out to bat at number three and smashed the opposition bowlers left, right and centre living up to their reputation. Kiran smashed 69 runs off 34 balls at a brilliant strike rate of 202.94 with five fours and as many sixes to her name. Velocity fell short of the target by 16 runs but made it to the final and will face Supenovas on May 28 (Saturday).
