Women’s T20 Challenge 2022: Kiran Navgire crushes Trailblazers' dream, as Velocity book their berth

Kiran Navgire's fearless 69 of just 34 deliveries secured a ticket to the finale for Velocity. Both the teams entered the final group stage match with the hopes of booking their ticket to the finals, as Supernovas had already qualified for their 4th consecutive final. 

Deepti Sharma won the toss and asked the Trailblazers to bat first. Batting first, the team scored an impressive score of 190 runs on the board. Now the stipulations for both the teams were such that Velocity needed to achieve a minimum of 159 runs to advance to the finals irrespective of the result of the match, and Trailblazers required to win the match with at least a margin of 32 runs.

In a high octane run chase, Velocity fell short of the target resulting in a victory for the Trailblazers, but they ended their innings with a score of 174/9, scoring fifteen runs more than the minimum required. This feat helped them advance to their maiden final in 4 editions of the tournament. 

What's fair to say is that at the end of the match, it's the women's cricket that emerged victorious. So let's look at the proceedings and highlights of the game as it proceeded till its very last ball.

Trailblazers put a heavy score to chase for Velocity

Asked to bat first, Trailblazers lost an early key wicket of Smriti Mandhana in the 3rd over as she departed for a single run. After they were firing bullets at the Velocity bowlers, Sabbhineni Meghana was hitting the ball at a strike rate of 155 and played a brilliant knock of 73 off just 47 deliveries.

Her partner in crime was Jemimah Rodrigues, who scored a beautiful and balanced knock of 66 in 44 deliveries and both the batters celebrated a 113-run stand. 

A sigh of relief for the Velocity bowlers came in the 15th over when Sneh Rana dismissed Meghana and broke the partnership. Trailblazers managed to score 60 runs in the last five overs with fast-hitting cameos by Hayley Matthews and Sophia Dunkley.

At the end of 20 overs, Trailblazers scored 190 runs and needed to restrict Velocity to under 169 runs to qualify for the finals.

Kiran Navgire becomes the hero for Velocity 

Chasing a big total, Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia started precisely at the pace that the doctor ordered. However, both the batters were dismissed in quick succession in the powerplay. After the end of 6 overs, Velocity was 68/2

The match was quite balanced at that point, however, Velocity needed a good partnership, and that's just what they got, courtesy of the Superstar of the match Kiran Navgire.

Kiran came to bat and started smashing every ball out of the park and shifted the match's momentum completely towards Velocity. Kiran smashed the fastest 50 of the Women's T20 Challenge. She scored a 50 out of just 25 deliveries. 

Kiran eventually ended her innings at a score of 69 off 34 deliveries with a strike rate of 202. However, by the time Trailblazers got her wicket, the match had already slipped out of their hands. Velocity was 153/6 in 16.4 overs and required just 16 runs in 20 deliveries.

Post Kiran's dismissal, the pace of the innings took a hit, and their intention was quite visible as they were happy losing the match as long they managed to get past 159. Eventually, Simran Bahadur's 12 off 10 balls helped Velocity reach the finals. 

The Trailblazers whatsoever won the match by a margin of 16 runs. The final between Supernovas and Velocity will be played on 28th May. 

Brief Scores:

Trailblazers: 190/5 (20)

Sabbhineni Meghana 73(47), Jemimah Rodrigues 66 (44)

Simran Bahadur 2/31 (3)

Velocity: 174/9 (20)

Kiran Navgire 69(34), Shafali Verma 29(15)

Poonam Yadav 2/33 (4)

Trailblazers won by 16 runs