Cameos from Kaur, Deol, Dottin help Supernovas post 163 v Trailblazers

Supernovas captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Harleen Deol at the MCA Stadium in Pune yesterday

A thirty-plus knock at a good strike rate in T20 cricket is considered to be as important as a half-century in the 50-over format. Supernovas found three such knocks in the Women's T20 Challenge opener against Trailblazers at the MCA Stadium here on Monday evening.

As a result, the Supernovas managed to post a challenging 163 on the board, before being bowled out off the final ball of their innings. West Indian Deandra Dottin (32), Harleen Deol (35) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (37) came up with aggressive knocks to help their team get past the 160-run mark.

At the time of going to press, Trailblazers were 62-1 in seven overs. Dottin and Priya Punia (20 off 22) dominated the Powerplay overs with some excellent stroke-play. Punia made her intent clear early by lofting Renuka Singh over the long-on boundary in the first over.

After that, it was Dottin all the way for the next four overs. The West Indian stuck Rajeshwari Gayakwad for a four and followed it up by smacking Singh for three fours in the next over. Punia's back-to-back boundaries off Gayakwad meant Supernovas were scoring at almost 10 per over by the end of the fourth. The run-rate continued to be the same, before an unfortunate mix up between the openers saw Dottin being run out.

Brief scores
Supernovas 163 all out in 20 overs (H Kaur 37, H Deol 35; H Matthews 3-29, S Khatun 2-30) v Trailblazers (scores incomplete)