Riding on a Megan Schutt and Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry exceptional bowling, Harmanpreet Kaur-led Supernovas thrashed Smriti Mandhana’s Trailblazers by three wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in a one-off Women’s T20 Challenge on Tuesday.

The very first one-off Women’s T20 challenge went down to the last over. What an experience this has been at Wankhede. Supernovas beat Trailblazers by 3 wickets. Smiles all around #IPLWomen pic.twitter.com/7WwnxEhAtu

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— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 22, 2018

Fielding first, Harmanpreet Kaur’s side bowled well and restricted Trailblazers to a low total of 129/6 in 20 overs. Chasing the meagre total, Supernovas won the match with three wickets to spare.

Following the target of 129 runs, Mithali Raj (22 runs off 17 balls) and Danielle Wyatt (24 runs off 20 balls) gave a brisk start to the Supernovas and added 47 runs for the first wicket in 5.4 overs. However, Ekta Bisht broke their partnership by sending Mithali back to the stands. Soon, Poonam Yadav brought Trailblazers back into the game by removing Wyatt.

Australian skipper Meg Lanning added 16 runs for the Supernovas before she was bowled out by Poonam Yadav.

After the Supernovas’ upper batting order was sent back to the pavilion, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur along with Sophie Devine took charge of the innings and added crucial 35 runs for the fourth wicket. New Zealand skipper Suzie Bates broke their partnership by sending them both back.

After winning the toss, Harmanpreet Kaur opted to bowl first and executed their plan well by removing Australian wicket-keeper batsman Alyssa Healy (7 runs off 6 balls) and elegant Indian opener Smriti Mandhana (14 runs off 9 balls) early from the crease.

Following Mandhana and Healy’s departure, Suzie Bates and Beth Mooney took the charge of Trailblazers’ innings. However, taking advantage of the pressure, Megan Schutt removed Mooney (4 runs, 4 balls) from the attack.

After Mooney’s departure, Indian all-rounder Deepti Sharma joined Bates at the crease but was not able to do much for her team and gifted her wicket to Rajeshwari Gayakwad at the score of 21.

Following Deepti’s dismissal, 17-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues (25 runs off 23 balls) joined Bates at the crease and added 45 runs for the fifth wicket.

However, Anuja Patil broke Rodrigues-Bates partnership by sending Jemimah back to the stands. After Jemmiah departed, Shikha Pandey joined Bates at the crease.

Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry removed New Zealand skipper Suzie Bates who played a patient innings, scoring 32 runs off 37 balls.

Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Suzie Bates bagged two wickets for Trailblazers. Indian speedster Jhulan Goswami took one wicket.

From Supernovas side, Anuja Patil and Rajeshwari Gayakwad took one wicket each. Megan Schutt and Ellyse Perry bagged two wickets each.

Fall of wickets:

Trailblazers: 17-1 (Alyssa Healy, 1.6), 21-2 (Smriti Mandhana, 2.3), 26-3 (Beth Mooney, 3.3), 58-4 (Deepti Sharma, 8.6), 103-5 (Jemimah Rodrigues, 15.6), 123-6 (Suzie Bates, 18.4)

Supernovas: 47-1 (Mithali Raj, 5.4), 57-2 (Danielle Wyatt, 6.5), 71-3 (Meg Lanning, 8.6), 106-4 (Sophie Devine, 14.5), 111-5 (Veda Krishnamurthy, 15.5), 113-6 (Harmanpreet Kaur, 16.3), 126-7 (Mona Meshram, 19)

Teams:

Supernovas Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Danielle Wyatt, Mithali Raj, Meg Lanning, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Pooja Vastrakar, Megan Schutt, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Anuja Patil

Trailblazers Squad: Alyssa Healy (wk), Smriti Mandhana (c), Deepti Sharma, Danielle Hazell, Jhulan Goswami, Suzie Bates, Shikha Pandey, Beth Mooney, Ekta Bisht, Lea Tahuhu, Jemimah Rodrigues, Poonam Yadav, Dayalan Hemalatha