Sharjah: After a convincing five-wicket win over Supernovas in the first match of Women's T20 Challenge, Velocity were meted out with a heavy blow by Trailblazers as they were bowled out for 47 runs in 15.1 overs on Thursday here at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Spinner Sophie Ecclestone was the wrecker in chief as she picked up four wickets for 15 runs in 3.1 overs. Jhulan Goswami and Rajeshwari Gayakwad took two wickets each to rip through Velocity's battling-line-up.
After captain Mithali Raj decided to bat first, her team couldn't back up the decision. They lost their top half for only 21 runs on board in 5.3 overs.
Pace bowler Jhulan Goswami gave Trailblazers the first breakthrough leaving Shafali Verma's stumps tumbling in the second delivery of the third over. In the fourth over, Sophie Ecclestone trapped Mithali lbw for just one run and in the very next ball, she bamboozled Veda Krishnamurthy for nought.
There was no respite for Velocity thereafter as Goswami increased their misery by scalping her second wicket in the match. This time she dismissed Danni Wyatt (3 off 11 balls) in the third ball of the fifth over.
In the sixth over, Velocity were reduced to 21 runs for 5 by Ecclestone, who exploited the slow conditions of Sharjah pitch to get better of the Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Sushma Verma.
With half of the team in the dugout, Velocity could score only two runs for two wickets in the next three overs with Sune Luus and Sushree Dibyadarshini felling to successive deliveries off Rajeshwari Gayakwad's bowling.
Leigh Kasperek showed some resistance briefly as Velocity added 14 runs for the eight-wicket partnership with Shikha Pandey. However, the partnership was broken immediately as Pandey was run out by a combined effort of Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma.
Sharma soon reduced them to 45 for 9 picking up the wicket of Ekta Bisht for a duck.
Jahanara Alam was the last batswoman to fall in the first delivery of the 15th over as Velocity were bundled out for dismal 47 runs.
