Velocity vs Trailblazers, 2nd Match at Sharjah, T20 Challenge, Nov 05 2020 - Ball by Ball Commentary

4.10 That's that from this, the second game of the Women's T20 Challenge. It now makes Saturday's match a must-win for the defending champions the Supernovas. Thanks to this margin of victory, it won't boil down to Net Run Rate, in all likelihood. The equation would be quite simple - if the Supernovas win, they make the final at the expense of Velocity. Velocity will take time off to first recover physically, and then throw the bulk of their support behind the Trailblazers, and then hope to play the final on November 9, and exact some revenge.

For the moment, stay tuned to ESPNcricinfo for coverage of the first qualifier, which will begin shortly on our site and pages. For the moment, bidding you goodbye on behalf of Sreshth Shah and Chandan Duorah.

Sophie Ecclestone is the player of the match: "It's great to be with a great bunch of girls. When the wickets aren't turning, you just keep varying the pace and look to bowl as straight as possible. It's nice to get a few wickets. Some of the youngsters are really good. They are teaching me some Hindi and I am getting to understand their culture."

Smriti Mandhana speaks: "We were really excited. We had a quarantine period of 14 days and training for 7 days. It was a good game after all of these months. I was going to field first anyway, so I was happy with Mithalidi's decision. We wanted to have a good look at the wicket. We wanted to know the target to chase. The bowling plans were according to the batters. I just told the bowlers to keep it back of a length, at the stumps, and look to the wicket to do the rest. When I saw the teams, I thought we had a great spin attack, especially for UAE. Having a number of good spinners is a good headache to have. As a captain, I would take that anyday. It's an exciting tournament, and last year, we had some good talents who went on to play in the World Cup. Having Raja (Rajeshwari) bowling alongside someone like Sophie, and then Richa Ghosh, it will be good for Indian cricket."

"Well until you give the players enough opportunities, you can't decide if an 9 team Women's IPL should happen or not. You give them 4 days after almost 8 months of no cricket. Too harsh to judge them. Don't know about an 8 team tournament, but we should surely be having one with 4 teams with a proper league stage the coming year." --- Completely agree, Tarun. Four is a minimum, but I think we have a player pool wide enough around the world to have five or even six. The key is to giving it a proper window, so the best international players are available, which was difficult to organise this time around, obviously, given the pandemic.

Kabir : "How many 10 wickets win in the men's IPL this season? Mumbai the other day against SRH (they are favourite to lift the trophy this year too) The girls have lost by 9 wickets-- 1/3 rd of these games are one sided . I do believe women's IPL is the way forward- I would suggest 6 team, get all the international players in, 5 foreign players in each team, let our young girls rub shoulder to shoulder & blossom- just like our Jadeja's, Rahul's, Pant's, Samson "

Deandra Dottin: "I was just looking to get the runs quickly, because cricket is a funny game. For me, I have been talking to my friends back home, and watching a bit of Netflix. Probably take a dip [on the off day] and rest up for the next game."

Mithali Raj: "When you have a good wicket, when you know that your batters have been in fine form in the last innings. you want to bat first. I personally would have loved to have had a partnership going between Shafali and Danni, but in both innings we couldn't get that. Then there was a collapse in the middle. Overall, this is a match to forget. We are going to recover [tomorrow] but it's important we regroup and analyse. Two matches back-to-back without any preparation is tough, but we have to cheer the girls up. They would have felt sad about the way they batted today."

3.53pm Well, this has been slightly underwhelming, but we have harped on the fact that it was always going to be difficult for the Velocity team, having just finished their opening match last night at the same ground. On hindsight, you might think they would have been better served fielding first perhaps, but then there's no guaranteeing how their bowling would have held up with even lesser rest.

Tulasi Gogineni: "Did RCB get bowled to a similar score against KKR. No one said mens IPL is ready for 8 team tournament. It's unfair to criticise based on one off-day."

Just 11 to win now

John: "I Agree with Amit. By the time they would have gone back to their rooms, it would have been 11 or 12 and after the breakfast they would have started to the ground. It will be really tiring and not to forget, they are playing after more than 8 months. "

ASensarma: "To all the critics of this match saying it's boring because it's 'one-sided', would you say the same when Shane Warne was running through most clueless international sides due to his sporting brilliance?" --- Abhijato also wants you to rate Ecclestone on a scale of "Swann to Khan" about her variations

"Can we expect a twist in the tale here?? I reckon something's gonna give" --- Hari doing his best Ravi Shastri impression