Pooja Vastrakar stars as supernovas beat the frontrunner by 49 turns in the women’s T20 challenge opener

Pooja Vastrakar racked up four runs in just 12 runs in a fantastic pace of bowling as Supernovas scored an easy 49-time win over Trailblazer in the record opening match of the Women’s T20 Challenge in Pune in Monday. 22-year-old Vastrakar claims his position as Trailblazers captain Smriti Mandhana (34), her opening partner Hayley Matthews (18), number 4 Sophia Dunkley (1) and Salma Khatun (0) in two separate spells to tear the defending champions’ batting line-up . British left-hander Sophie Ecclestone and Australian all-rounder Alana King won with two strokes each as the Trailblazer managed to score just 114 9 out of 20 passes while chasing 164 .

The Supernovas previously scored the tournament’s all-time high of 163 after choosing to hit the stroke.

The frontrunners got off to a strong start to their chase with Mandhana and Matthews making 39 opening runs in five rounds.

But Vastrakar delivered three hits to the Trailblazer to put the defending champions in trouble.

She first knocked out Matthews on the final ball of the fifth inning and then eliminated captains Mandhana and Dunkley by four balls in the eighth.

The Wickets continued to mess up in succession as Sharmin Akhter (0) was shortly thereafter replacing a duck as King’s first victim of the day.

Trailblazer overcame a lot of difficulties when they reached 71 to 4 at half way. But two quick tackles in the 11th minute after Ecclestone’s pitch nearly ended the contest. Ecclestone let Richa Gosh (2) on the second serve and Arundhati Reddy (0) was sent out on the next serve as the Trailblazers hitters appeared to be in a hurry to return to the hut.

Harmanpreet Kaur giving Vastrakar her second spell and she had instant success having Khatun reduce Trailblazer to 73-7 at the end of 12 rounds.

Asking rates were up more than 11x at the time and Jemimah Rodrigues (24) knocked one down trying to make a match but she also fell 14 minutes into Meghna Singh to dash any hopes. Trailblazer’s resistance.

Before that, Supernovas captain Kaur scored the highest with 37 of 29 balls while Harleen Deol and Dendra Dottin 35 and 32 respectively.

However, they lost five points in the last two rounds in just eight runs, including Kaur’s, in a dramatic fall.

Matthews was the Trailblazer runners’ choice with a tally of 3 for 29 while Salma Khatun lost two in 30 runs. The Supernovas got off to an incredible start, reaching the tournament’s all-time best power play score of 58 for one with Dottin’s opener (32 out of just 17 balls) in ominous form.

Dottin hit Renuka Singh for three rounds in the third round from which the Supernovas took 14 runs. However, she ran towards the fifth while stepping back too far from her wrinkles. She hit five hits and one hit six.

Another opener Priya Punia (22 years old) continued a little longer before she was knocked out in the eighth. Young Deol showed great form and shared 37 third match runs with captain Kaur.

She hit Matthews four rounds in a row in the eighth round but couldn’t convert her start to a big score, being eliminated in the 12th round.

Kaur, who appeared on Punia’s demise in season eight, took on the role of holding the ship for herself despite her side missing the clustered parts.

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Sune Luus (10) down Rajeshwari Gayakwad (1/34) on the 15th day before King (5) became the second evil tree of Khatun’s day.

Vastrakar and Kaur were knocked out in the space of three balls in the 19th inning before the Supernovas lost three more balls in the dramatic finale.