Indian left-arm spinner Radha Yadav scripted history on Monday night as she became the first bowler to scalp five wickets in Women’s T20 Challenge. The Supernovas bowler reached the remarkable feat during the final match against Trailblazers at Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Yadav registered the magical figures of 5/16 in her 4-over spell.
Trailblazers skipper Smriti Mandhana hammered the Supernova attack with a well-made half-century. She scored 68 off 49 before losing her wicket to Shashikala Siriwardene. Mandhana’s triggered a middle-order collapse.
Radha Yadav took over the field with an outstanding spell thereafter. She cleaned up the middle Trailblazers middle-order, striking to pick her first two scalps in the 18th over. She dismissed Deepti Sharma (9) and Richa Ghosh (10) in that over.
She owned the record in the final over, getting rid of Sophie Ecclestone (1), Harleen Deol (4) and Jhulan Goswami (1).
Radha’s five-wicket haul came as a sigh of relief as Supernovas were able to pull Trailblazers back after Smriti Mandhana had bludgeoned the bowling attack. Radha said she likes being in pressure situations and enjoys bowling in the death overs.
“I like such situations, when there’s pressure, I really enjoy bowling and taking wickets. I actually don’t think too much and try to keep it simple and pitch it in the right areas. I mainly aim to cut down the boundaries,” Radha told host broadcaster Star Sports at the innings break.
“I think we pulled things back nicely given the way they started and we did well to contain them in the last few overs. I feel we should be able to chase this down,” she added.
Trailblazers clinched the title after beating Supernovas by 16 runs. Trailblazers had set a modest target of 119 to win but the Supernovas failed to chase it as they could only manage 102/7 in their 20 overs.