Women's Cricket
Crowd chants 'We want Women's IPL', Jay Shah also hints at 'something bigger' next season
While the crowd in Pune chanted 'We want Women's IPL' in the stands during the Women's T20 Challenge Final, BCCI secretary Jay Shah hints possibilities for next season.
Harmanpreet Kaur and Deandra Dottin at the Women's T20 Challenge final (Source: BCCI Women)
The fourth edition of the Women's T20 Challange came to a close on Saturday with an electrifying final where Harmanpreet Kaur's Supernovas emerged as the champions. The match went down the wire in the last over, where Velocity needed six runs off the final delivery.
West Indian all-rounder Deandra Dottin starred with both bat and ball as she powered Supernovas to an unprecedented third Women's T20 Challenge title triumph with a four-run win over Velocity. Dottin top-scored with a 44-ball 62 at the top of the order to help Supernovas to 165 for seven after being put in to bat. With the ball, she took two wickets for 28 runs in her four overs to play a major role in restricting Velocity to 161 for eight. South African batter Laura Wolvaardt almost single-handedly took Velocity within striking distance of a sensational win with a blazing 65 not out off 40 balls, which included five fours and three sixes.
Wolvaardt, who became the only batter in the tournament to score two half-centuries, launched a ferocious onslaught in the death overs with a flurry of boundaries to raise hopes of a stunning victory for Velocity.
The fourth edition of the tournament saw records being created and broken. The tournament also stood out as a platform for newcomers to show their talent on the big stage. Harmanpreet's 151 runs in the 3 innings with a batting average of 50.33 was the highest total in the tournament. Supernovas' Pooja Vastrakar emerged as the highest wicket-taker with 6 scalps. Newcomer Kiran Navgire went on to score the fastest fifty of the tournament in 25 deliveries. She ended up scoring 69 runs in 34 deliveries in that match which came in a losing cause.
The Women's T20 Challenge is expected to be a stepping stone for a full-fledged Women's IPL, and it seems like this might be the last edition of the three-team event. While BCCI had earlier mentioned that a Women's IPL may begin in 2023, the crowd at Pune voiced their thoughts and demanded an extension of the tournament during the final. Slogans w 'We want Women's IPL' were raised.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who was present at the venue for the final, praised the quality of cricket on display and confirmed that next season will definitely be a bigger one. "The quality of cricket one witnessed in Women's T20 Challenge was truly remarkable with the best of Indian talent rubbing shoulders with the best in the world. The future is certainly promising and the next season will be much bigger. @ImHarmanpreet @BCCIWomen," Shah wrote on Twitter.
