Women's T20 Challenge: Trailblazers beat Supernovas to win first title

Trailblazers spinner Sophie Ecclestone appealsBCCI/IPL

England spinner Sophie Ecclestone took 1-26 in the final, and 5-55 in her three games in the tournament

Women's T20 Challenge final, Sharjah

Trailblazers 118-8 (20 overs): Mandhana 68, Radha 5-16

Supernovas 102-7 (20 overs): Kaur 30, Khatun 3-18

Trailblazers won by 16 runs

Scorecard

England spinner Sophie Ecclestone and her Trailblazers side beat defending champions Supernovas by 16 runs to win the Women's T20 Challenge in Sharjah.

Openers Smriti Mandhana and Deandra Dottin shared 71, but the Trailblazers lost 7-17 to finish on 118-8, with spinner Radha Yadav taking 5-16.

The Supernovas managed 102-7 in reply thanks to a disciplined bowling display led by Salma Khatun and Deepti Sharma.

It is the first time the Trailblazers have won the three-team tournament.

Mandhana exploited the six-over powerplay after the Trailblazers were asked to bat, hitting five fours and three beautiful straight sixes.

After the departure of Dottin, who struggled for timing in her 32-ball 20, the Trailblazers lost momentum on a pitch that started to slow.

Spinners Radha, Poonam Yadav and Shashikala Siriwardena took a combined 7-61 from 12 overs to put the Supernovas in the ascendency at the halfway point.

However, they never recovered from losing Sri Lanka captain Chamari Atapattu to slow left-armer Ecclestone in the second over of their chase.

The run-rate crept up and India captain Harmanpreet Kaur, struggling with injury, was unable to guide the Supernovas to victory despite making 30.

The competition, which started in 2018, is the women's equivalent of the Indian Premier League. The Supernovas had won the two previous editions.

The only other England player involved was Danni Wyatt. Her Velocity team failed to reach the final, with the opener scoring only three runs in two innings.

Follow live text and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra commentary of Mumbai Indians v Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League final on the BBC Sport website and app from 13:30 GMT on Tuesday, 10 November.