Sharjah: Supernovas edged past Trailblazers by two runs in a must-win encounter to storm into the final of the Women’s Twenty20 Challenge at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
Opener Chamari Atapattu top-scored with 67 runs (48 balls, 5×4, 4×6) as two-time champions Supernovas piled up a fighting total of 146 for 6 after opting to bat first.
Trailblazers tried hard but just couldn’t cross the finish line and were restricted to 144 for five in 20 overs. Trailblazers were on course until captain Smriti Mandhana (33) was out in the middle. Once she departed, Trailblazers faltered.
Deepti Sharma, who remained unbeaten on 43, and Harleen Deol (27) batted well to help their team stay in the hunt with a 50-run partnership but failed to deliver the knock-out punch. They needed ten runs in the last over but Radha Yadav bowled a splendid over to clinch the issue in her team’s favour.
For her big knock, Chamari Atapattu was adjudged as player-of-the-match.
Supernovas will take on the Trailblazers again in the summit clash on Monday at the same venue.
Brief scores
Supernovas 146 for 6 in 20 overs (Chamari Atapattu 67, Harmanpreet Kaur 31, Priya Punia 30; Jhulan Goswami 1-17, Salma Khatun 1-25, Harleen Deol 1-34) beat Trailblazers 144 for 5 in 20 overs (Deepti Sharma 43 not out, Smriti Mandhana 33, Deandra Dottin 27, Harleen Deol 27; Radha Yadav 2-30, Shakera Selman 2-31, Anuja Patil 1-18) by 2 runs.