Riding on impressive innings by Sushma Verma (34) and Sune Luus (37*), Velocity beat Supernovas by 5 wickets in the opening match of Women's T20 Challenge 2020 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, here on Wednesday.
Velocity produced a disciplined bowling effort to restrict defending champions Superonva to 126/8 in 20 overs after winning the toss.
In reply, Sushma Verma scored 34 in 33 balls and Suue Luus scored an unbaten 37 in 21 balls and helped Velocity chased down 127 in 19.5 overs to pick up a 5-wicket win.
After being invited to bat first, Priya Punia and Chamari Athapaththu provided a steady start to Supernovas as both batters put on 30 runs for the first wicket, but Velocity came back strongly in the sixth over as Leigh Kasperek dismissed Punia (11).
Jemimah Rodrigues (7) walked in at the but departed soon after showing glimpses of her brilliance. She was clean bowled by Ekta Bisht, reducing Supernovas to 42/2.
Harmanpreet Kaur joined Athapaththu (44) after the departure of Jemimah and the duo put on 47 runs for the third wicket.
The two batsman showed their class and were looking set to end Supernovas' innings on a high but pacer Jahanara Alam came back to dismiss the Sri Lankan first in the 13 over and then Harmanpreet (31) on the 4th ball of 17th over.
In the last three overs, Supernovas managed to add just ten more runs to their total and Velocity picked up four wickets to restrict the Harmanpreet-led side to a paltry total of 126/8.
For Velocity, Ekta Bisht displayed a stunning bowling performance with figures of 3/22 while New Zealand off-spinner Leigh Kasperek (2/23) and medium pacer Jahanara Alam (2/27) also contributed well.
Chasing 127 for victory, the England star Danielle Wyatt departed in the first over even before Velocity could open their account.
Capatin Mithali Raj walked in and joined young Shafali Verma, who got out after a boundary hitting spree. A captain's knock was the need of the hour but Mithali also couldn't do much and got out for 7 in the 9th over.
From there on, Veda Krishnamurthy and wicketkeeper-batsman Sushma Verma partnered for important 27 runs for the 4th wicket to stabilise their team's innings.
However, as the scoreboard pressure keep on mounting, Krishnamurthy lost patience and got out to Radha Yadav on the last delivery of the 13th innings. In the end, Luus took Velocity over the line by five wickets with one ball to spare.
Ayabonga Khaka 2-17 was the best performer with the ball for Supernovas.
Brief Scores: Velocity 129/5 (Sushma Verma 34, Sune Luus 37*, Ayabonga Khaka 2-17) defeat Supernovas 126/8 (Chamari Athapaththu 44, Harmanpreet Kaur 31, Ekta Bisht 3-22) by five wickets.
SOURCE- UNI
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