Women T20 Challenge Match 3: Trailblazers vs Velocity

🏏Women's T20 Challenge, 2022🏏

The Women's T20 Challenge, also known as the Women's IPL, is an Indian women's cricket T20 tournament that has been held since 2018. The tournament features three teams, playing a round-robin group followed by a final.

Women’s IPL has been in demand for almost two years now and the demand gained vigorous momentum after the success of The Hundred’ Women’s edition last year in England. However, all those demands have so far borne no fruit and the only outcome has been the re-introduction of the three-team and four-match long Women’s T20 challenge, a token tournament to showcase women representation in the richest cricket league in the world.

After being dropped for the 2021 edition due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the tournament returns this year with the matches being played at the same time as the IPL Playoffs but at a different venue.

Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma pose with the Women's T20 Challenge 2022 Trophy at MCA Pune. Photo: @IPL

🔹The First Season

The first edition of the Women’s T20 Challenge was played in 2018 where only an exhibition game was held between two teams named IPL Trailblazers and IPL Supernovas at the Wankhede Stadium ahead of Qualifier 1 of IPL 2018. The match was won by the Supernovas led by Harmanpreet Kaur.

🔹The Second Season: Three-team Tournament

In 2019, the tournament was extended to become a three-team tournament with the number of matches being increased to three with the matches being played at a separate venue from the IPL Playoffs. Supernovas won the tournament by beating Mithali Raj led Velocity in the final by four wickets.

🔹The Third Season

In 2020, along with the IPL being suspended due to Covid-19, this tournament was also suspended. For the first time, it found sponsors and it was called Jio Women’s T20 Challenge. But Just like the IPL started in UAE, this tournament too was played i UAE at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium from November 04 to 09, coinciding with the IPL 2022 Playoffs.

The tournament was won by IPL Trailblazers who were led by Smriti Mandhana. They stopped the Supernovas from completing a hat-trick by defeating them in the final by 16 runs.

Women’s T20 challenge founded sponsors

In 2022, for the first time, even the token representation of women in IPL was scrapped as the BCCI found it better not to complicate things, which were already hugely complicated because of IPL being postponed in May 2021 due to the Covid outbreak.

Teams participating in the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that three teams will compete in the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022 to be crowned champions at the end of the tournament.

Team Lead by

Supernovas Harmanpreet Kaur

Trailblazers Smriti Mandhana

Velocity Deepti Sharma

Overseas players allowed in each team for the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022

Much like the Indian Premier League, even in the Women’s T20 Challenge, four foreigners are allowed to be a part of the Playing 11 of any side.

🏏Women T20 Challenge 2022 Schedule🏏

It was reported earlier that Lucknow might host this edition of the Women’s T20 Challenge. But later BCCI confirmed that the tournament will be played in Pune.

All four matches of the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022 will be played at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.This was also one of the venues for the IPL 2022 where 15 matches of the league were scheduled to be played. However, two of Delhi Capitals’ matches were later shifted to Mumbai due to Covid-19 related issues with the team.

There will be a total of 4 games, like in previous seasons. This includes the final. The first game will be played on 23rd May at 7:30 PM in Pune. The 2nd match will be an afternoon affair and will start at 3:30 PM. The game will be played on 24th May.

There will be a break of one day as the third game will be played on 26th May. The final will be played on 28th May. Notably, the matches will be played alongside the Men’s IPL2022 playoffs

Check out the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022 Schedule

Date Match Time (IST)
23-May-22 Trailblazers vs Supernovas 7:30 pm
24-May-22 Supernovas vs Velocity 3:30 pm
26-May-22 Velocity vs Trailblazers 7:30 pm
28-May-22 Final 7:30 pm

Overseas players:

🔸Supernovas: Alana King (Australia), Deandra Dottin (West Indies), Sophie Eccelstone (England), Sune Luus (South Africa)

🔹Trailblazers: Hayley Matthews (West Indies), Salma Khatun (Bangladesh), Shamin Akter (Bangladesh), Sophia Brown (England).

🔸Velocity: Ayabonga Khaka (South Africa), Katheryn Cross (England), Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa), Natthakan Chantham (Thailand).

Players to watch out for:

Indian: Smriti Mandhana (batter), Deepti Sharma (all-rounder), Harmanpreet Kaur (all-rounder), Shafali Verma (batter), Jemimah Rodrigues (batter), Yastika Bhatia (batter), Arundhati Reddy (medium-pacer), Rajeshwari Gayakwad (off-spinner), Radha Yadav (off-spinner), Poonam Yadav (leg-spinner).

Smriti Mandhana (Sydney Thunder), Deepti Sharma (Sydney Thunder), Harmanpreet Kaur (Melbourne Renegades), Shafali Varma (Sydney Sixers), Jemimah Rodrigues (Melbourne Renegades), Radha Yadav (Sydney Sixers) participated in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) 2021-22 and impressed with their performances.

Overseas: Alana King (Australia/Perth Scorchers), Deandra Dottin (West Indies/London Spirit in The 100), Kathryn Cross (England/North West Thunder/Manchester Originals in The 100), Sophie Eccelstone (England/Manchester Originals in The 100), Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa/Adelaide Strikers).

All these players put up a terrific performance for their respective sides in the ICC Women's World Cup 2022 in New Zealand which was won by Australia. They are all potential match-winners for their respective national/WBBL/The 100 sides.

Welcome to the third match of Womens T20 challenge 2022, Velocity vs Trailblazers.

Velocity beat the Supernovas in the previous match as Shafali and Wolvdaart scored fifties. But the Trailbrazers were beaten by the Supernovas quite convincingly in the first game of the series. They are the only team yet to open their account and their net run rate isn't that impressive either. The top teams will face of in the final of the tournament, and given the Trailbrazers' NRR, it's unlikely they'll make it through even if they win tonight. Stay tuned for the toss and teams.

Pitch Report

The pitch is the same as the one from the match between Supernovas and Velocity. The pitch hasn't changed much from the previous game. The ball will skid through and it will help batters pile up the runs. Fuller length by seamers might reap better rewards

Squads:

Velocity Squad: Shafali Verma, Natthakan Chantham, Yastika Bhatia(w), Laura Wolvaardt, Deepti Sharma(c), Kiran Navgire, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Kate Cross, Ayabonga Khaka, Maya Sonawane, Keerthi James, Shivali Shinde, Simran Bahadur, Aarti Kedar, Pranavi Chandra

Trailblazers Squad: Smriti Mandhana(c), Hayley Matthews, Jemimah Rodrigues, Sophia Dunkley, Sharmin Akhter, Richa Ghosh(w), Arundhati Reddy, Salma Khatun, Poonam Yadav, Renuka Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sabbhineni Meghana, Priyanka Priyadarshini, Saika Ishaque, Shradda Bhau Pokharkar, Sujata Mallik

🪙 Toss🪙

🔸 Velocity have won the toss and have opted to field

Deepti Sharma, Velocity captain: We are going to bowl first. We want to chase it. One change for us. Feeling very good after that win, enjoying the moment. We need to sticks to the basics.

Smriti Mandhana, Trailblazers captain: We still have a good chance, hopefully we will be able to execute our plans. We have a great chance to post a good total. We had a chat after their match, so we know the scenario (to qualify for the final).

•> Changes made today in playing XI

🔸Team Velocity : Simran Dil Bahadur IN,

Maya Sonawane OUT

🔹Team Trailblazers: S Meghana IN,

Sharmin Akhter OUT

Playing XI for Today's Match

~Let's know players have to say before the match:

•> Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Trailblazers player: We spent the rest day planning about the game today and practicing. The wicket favours the batters and it would be good if they could get a good proportion of runs in the powerplay. My partnership with Poonam is good as we have been playing together for a long time and understand each other's bowling

•> Sophia Dunkley, Trailblazers player: Preparation has been great. We need to go out there believing we can do it.

•> Yastika Bhatia, Velocity player: I have enjoyed keeping right from childhood and to get to keep at this tournament is something that gives me pleasure. There are no specific goals (personally). We should tighten our fielding as it will help us in keeping the opposition's total low. We have seen a recent Hindi movie - Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2- and have taught Kate Cross the hook steps from a song in the movie. That's our wicket celebration.

•> Kate Cross, Velocity player: We have a couple of matches to win and get over the line. It's been nice getting to know the Indian players and I have picked up a few Hindi words as well. We need to tighten up our fielding from the first game. The batters need to continue what they have been doing

Res for Highlights

https://twitter.com/WomensCricZone/status/1529861258656493573

https://twitter.com/WomensCricZone/status/1529861072999563267

Velocity won the toss and chose to bowl

Playing XI's:

Trailblazers: S Mandhana*, HK Matthews, JI Rodrigues, SIR Dunkley, S Meghana, RM Ghosh†, A Reddy, Salma Khatun, Poonam Yadav, Renuka Singh, RS Gayakwad

Velocity: Shafali Verma, N Chantham, YH Bhatia†, L Wolvaardt, DB Sharma*, KP Navgire, S Rana, RP Yadav, KL Cross, A Khaka, SD Bahadur

Deepti Sharma: We want to chase and there is one change in our team Simran comes in place of Maya Sonawane

Smriti Mandhana: We din't have the luck with the toss but our batters know the plan. We would've liked to chase had we won the toss. We have one change, Meghna comes in for Sharmin

Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Trailblazers player: We spent the rest day planning about the game today and practicing. The wicket favours the batters and it would be good if they could get a good proportion of runs in the powerplay. My partnership with Poonam is good as we have been playing together for a long time and understand each other's bowling

Kate Cross, Velocity player: We have a couple of matches to win and get over the line. It's been nice getting to know the Indian players and I have picked up a few Hindi words as well. We need to tighten up our fielding from the first game. The batters need to continue what they have been doing