Supernovas post 165/7 in WT20 Challenge final against Velocity

PUNE: West Indian opener Deandra Dottin made full use of an early reprieve to score a blistering half-century and power Supernovas to 165 for seven against Velocity in the Women's T20 Challenge final here on Saturday.

The 30-year-old Dottin was dropped on 13 by Sneh Rana off Deepti Sharma in the fourth over, and she made Velocity pay for that costly mistake by making 62 off 44 balls, which was studded with one four and four sixes.

The experienced campaigner stitched 73 runs for the opening wicket with Priya Punia (28) and added 58 for the second wicket with in-form captain Harmanpreet Kaur (43 off 29 balls).

For Velocity, captain Deepti Sharma, Kate Cross and Simran Bahadur took two wickets apiece, while Ayabonga Khaka got one. The Supernovas could only score 34 runs in the last five overs while losing five wickets.

Dottin and Punia gave the Supernovas a flying start after being put in to bat, scoring at a brisk pace and reaching 46 for no loss in the powerplay.

Punia hit a six off Cross in the third over but her partner Dottin did even better, smashing consecutive maximums in the sixth over bowled by Rana. Punia was going strong when she got out in the 10th over bowled by Simran Bahadur, after smashing a six.

Captain Kaur, the tournament's highest scorer, came out and straightaway began collecting the runs, hitting a six off Rana in the 12th over and following it up with two maximums in the 14th over bowled by Yadav. In the next over, Velocity captain Deepti struck as she bowled Dottin.

The Supernovas suffered a batting collapse in the death overs as they lost four wickets for the addition of just 11 runs.

Pooja Vastrakar (5) was cleaned up by Ayabonga Khaka in the 17th over before Cross claimed two wickets -- that of Kaur and Sophie Ecclestone (2) -- in the space of three balls in the next over.

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