PUNE, May 23: Pooja Vastrakar picked up four wickets for just 12 runs in a brilliant pace-bowling display as Supernovas notched up an easy 49-run win over Trailblazers in a record-breaking opening match of the Women’s T20 Challenge here on Monday.
The 22-year-old Vastrakar claimed the wickets of Trailblazers’ captain Smriti Mandhana (34), her opening partner Hayley Matthews (18), No. 4 Sophia Dunkley (1) and Salma Khatun (0) in two separate spells to tear apart the batting line-up of the defending champions.
England left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone and Australia all-rounder Alana King chipped in with two wickets apiece as Trailblazers could only score 114 for 9 in 20 overs while chasing 164.
The Supernovas had earlier scored the tournament’s highest-ever score of 163 all out after opting to bat.
Trailblazers made a strong start to their chase with Mandhana and Matthews putting on 39 runs for the opening wicket in five overs.
But Vastrakar struck triple blows on Trailblazers to leave the defending champions in deep trouble.
She first had the wicket of Matthews off the last ball of the fifth over and then dismissed skipper Mandhana and Dunkley in the space of four balls in the eighth over.
Wickets kept on tumbling in quick succession as Sharmin Akhter (0) was out in the next over for a duck to be King’s first victim of the day.
Runs were hard to come by for Trailblazers as they reached 71 for 4 at the halfway mark. But two quick wickets in the 11th over bowled by Ecclestone virtually ended the contest.
Ecclestone had Richa Gosh (2) off the second ball of the over and Arundhati Reddy (0) was run out in the next delivery as Trailblazers batters looked in a hurry to return to the hut. (PTI)
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