'Love the Women's T20 Challenge': Supernovas starts their campaign with a comfortable win over Trailblazers

Trailblazers and Supernovas faced each other in the opening match of the Women's T20 Challenge 2022 at the MCA stadium in Pune. The 2019 winners won the toss and elected to bat first. Openers, Priya Punia and Deandra Dottin provided a great start by scoring 50 runs in five overs. Dottin (32 off 17) was going well but her inning was cut short by Sharmin Akhtar who ran out the West Indian.

Two overs later, Punia (22) was the second wicket to fall as she was clean bowled by Hayley Matthews. Harleen Doel, who came in after the fall of the first wicket, scored 35 off 19 balls including five fours. Deol was trapped lbw by Salma Khatun in the 12th over of the innings. Sune Luss came in and the scoring rate decreased courtesy her struggle at the crease. She could score only 10 off 11 balls before getting out to Rajeshwari Gaikwad.

This wicket triggered a collapse as the team went from 121/3 to 163 all-out. Harmanpreet Kaur (37) and Pooja Vastrakar (14) reached the double-digit mark while the rest got out within the 10-run mark. For the 2020 winners, Matthews took three wickets, Khatun took two and the likes of Gaikwad and Poonam Yadav took one each. In reply, the Smriti Mandhana-led side had a decent start as the openers played steadily.

Skipper herself and Matthews scored 39 runs in the first five overs. Matthews (18) tried to play over cover but was caught behind by Taniya Bhatia off Vastrakar. Vastrakar took her second wicket in the eighth over in the form of the opposition skipper, who scored 34 off 23 balls. Next batter, Sophia Dunkley (1) got out in the same over. This was the turning point for the Trailblazers. From 65/2, they slipped to 77/7 in no time.

Vastrakar completed a four-wicket haul which proved to be decisive. The only hopes for the Trailblazers, Jenimah Rodrigues (24) fell to Meghna Singh which pretty much ended the game. They ended being restricted to 114/9, losing the game by a big margin of 49 runs

This is how Twitter reacted

Terrific Innings from Harleen Deol. She played fearless. She scored brilliant 35 runs from 19 balls including 5 fours in the Women's T20 Challenge. pic.twitter.com/yUEFhmZ7wy

— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) May 23, 2022

Stand out umpiring so far in Women's T20 challenge, both the decisions came right. pic.twitter.com/NHeBpBOvkG

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) May 23, 2022

The last year of the women's T20 Challenge is underway. I look forward to the #WIPL. It will be successful from year 1.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 23, 2022

Why is crowd not allowed for women's T20 challenge? Or is crowd allowed but no one bothered to show up? #WT20Challenge

— The Cricket Statistician (@CricketSatire) May 23, 2022

Good to see craze for Women's T20 Challenge among my Mutuals.

Looks like I follow right peoples 😇❤️

— Cricket 🏏 Lover // Bumrah Is GOAT (@CricCrazyV) May 23, 2022

Official spectator count at innings break of the first ever ticketed match (Harmanpreet's Supernovas vs Mandhana's Trailblazers) in Women's T20 Challenge history: 1812#WT20Challenge | #WT20C

— Annesha Ghosh (@ghosh_annesha) May 23, 2022

Women's T20 challenge needs to expand into a proper 8 team Women's IPL. Sucks that people don't give it the attention it deserves

— Advit (@rebelmooned) May 23, 2022

i do love the women's t20 challenge, some good cricket and we've seen a lot of that so far in the first few overs of this year's tournament. real shame theres only 4 games, including the final, can't actually call that a tournament.

— ellie indie (@fiveforeight) May 23, 2022

This is now the highest total in Women's T20 Challenge, overtaking 146/6 by Supernovas against Trailblazers in 2020 (same team & opposition now).#WT20Challenge

— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) May 23, 2022

No commercial ads in the match.. one can watch whole game without interruptions, still only very few people watching #My11CircleWT20C Women's T20 Challenge. The crowd is also not in good numbers!

Will it change anytime soon?@IPL @BCCI @BCCIWomen#TBLvsSNO

Want Women's IPL soon

— A Karthic (@Karthic___) May 23, 2022