Women's T20 Challenge: Supernovas Beat Velocity In Nail-Biter To Win 3rd Title

Women's T20 Challenge: Harmanpreet Kaur-led Supernovas beat Velocity by four runs at the MCA Stadium in Pune to win their third title.

West Indian all-rounder Deandra Dottin starred with both bat and ball as she powered Supernovas to an unprecedented third Women's T20 Challenge title triumph with a four-run win over Velocity in a thrilling final here on Saturday. Dottin top-scored with a 44-ball 62 at the top of the order to help Supernovas to 165 for seven after being put in to bat. With the ball, she took two wickets for 28 runs in her four overs to play a major role in restricting Velocity to 161 for eight. South African batter Laura Wolvaardt almost single-handedly took Velocity within striking distance of a sensational win with a blazing 65 not out off 40 balls, which included five fours and three sixes.

Wolvaardt, who became the only batter in the tournament to score two half centuries, launched a ferocious onslaught in the death overs with a flurry of boundaries to raise hopes of a stunning victory for Velocity.

Number 10 batter Simran Bahadur (20 not out off 10 balls) also chipped in with three successive fours in the penultimate over. Velocity needed 17 runs from the final over but left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone (2/28) conceded just 12 runs to win the match despite Wolvaardt hitting a six off the first ball.

If Englishwoman Ecclestone made life difficult for Velocity batters in the first half of the run chase, Australian leg-spinner Alana King (3/32) did the same in the back end. King was on a hat-trick after dismissing Sneh Rana and Radha Yadav off consecutive balls in the 16th over.

Supernovas had won the first two editions of the tournament in 2018 and 2019 before losing to Trailblazers in the final in 2020. The tournament was not held last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Velocity had finished runners-up in 2019.