Caribbean cricketer Deandra Dottin stole the show with her all-round show in the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022 final against Velocity on Saturday. With the bat in hand, she smashed a 44-ball 62, helping her team post a challenging score of 165 for 7. Later, she not only bowled the first-ever maiden over of the ongoing tournament but also bagged the crucial wicket of Shafali Verma who was scoring runs at a strike rate of 187.5.
Dottin, along with her opening partner Priya Punia, gave the Supernovas a flying start, scoring at a brisk pace and reaching 46 for no loss at the end of the powerplay. The 30-year-old was dropped on 13 by Sneh Rana off Deepti Sharma in the fourth over, and she made Velocity pay for that costly mistake by her rollicking knock, which was studded with one four and four sixes.
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The seasoned 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).
While defending the 156-run total, Dotting produced a great first spell in which she bowled 2 overs, conceded only 4 runs and dismissed Varma. She grabbed the attention by his unique ‘money splash’ celebration after dismissing the Velocity opener in the third over.
The Caribbean all-rounder bowled a back of a length delivery while Shafali looked to play the cut shot. Unfortunately, she edged it and Tania Bhatia took a stunning diving catch.
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After dismissing Verma, she conceded 3 wides but compensated for all those extras in her next over. She bowled a maiden over in the crucial final against in-form batter Kiran Navgire, who had smashed 69 runs off 34 deliveries in the previous encounter against the Trailblazers.
Earlier, Supernovas captain Kaur, who is also 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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