Twitter Reactions: Trailblazers crash out despite victory as Velocity advance to the final with better NRR

The third and final game of the league stage of the Women’s T20 Challenge witnessed defending champions Trailblazers lock horns with Velocity. While the Smriti Mandhana-led Trailblazers had faced a miserable defeat in their last game against the Supernovas, the Deepti Sharma-led Velocity was backed by a win. Trailblazers emerged victorious by 16 runs but Velocity qualified for the finals, thanks to a higher NRR.

Winning the toss, Velocity opted to chase. With Mandhana (1 off 5) being dismissed early in the powerplay, Sabbhineni Meghana utilized every opportunity that she received. After missing out on the first match, she opened the innings alongside Mandhana and took charge of the power-hitting. She was very well supported by Jemimah Rodrigues as the two stitched up a brilliant 113-run partnership for the second wicket.

Sneh Rana gave her side the much-needed breakthrough when she dismissed Meghana (73 off 47) late in the 15^th over. Rodrigues (66 off 44) continued the fireworks but fell soon after Meghana’s dismissal in the 17^th over. Sophia Dunkley (19 off 8) and Hayley Matthews (27 off 16) added some crucial runs towards the end, before being dismissed by Simran Bahadur in the final over of the innings as Trailblazers put up the highest total in the history of the WT20 Challenge, registering 190/5.

Velocity lose but advance to the finals

Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia started with the chase for Velocity. Having won the first game, Velocity required to go past 158 runs in order to play the finals against Supernovas. The opening duo started off the game on a high note as they aimed for the boundaries at least once in the first three overs. Their momentum was broken when Salma Khatun dished out Bhatia for a 15-ball 19.

Varma (29 off 15) looked to continue her prowess when she hit Rajeshwari Gayakwad for three boundaries in the fifth over, but the spinner had the last laugh when she scalped her to give her team the upper hand. Velocity ended up scoring the highest powerplay total of WT20 Challenge as the batters knocked 68 runs in six overs. Laura Wolvaardt supported Kiran Navgire on the field as the latter fired with the bat.

Wolvaardt (17 off 16) could not leave an impression, but Navgire owned the game. She smashed the fastest half-century in WT20 Challenge history, in just 25 balls, and also led the team to register the fastest team 100 of the tournament. It took long for Trailblazers to get Navgire (69 off 34) out, but once they did, the batting unit fell like dominoes. Though Velocity could not win the game, they managed to score enough to make their way into the finals in search of their maiden WT20 Challenge title.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: