Salma Khatun, the Bangladesh Women’s team skipper, showed her class in Women’s IPL final as she led Trailblazers to clinch the trophy for the first time.
The Trailblazers won the Women's IPL for the first time on Monday with Salma's superb bowling. The Bangladesh star scalped 3 wickets by giving away only 18 runs in her four-over spell.
Despite good chances, the Trailblazers could not post a challenging total against Supoernovas in the final. Even then, the team's skipper Smriti Mandhana did not lose hope. Because, she always had immense confidence in her spin department. After winning the maiden Women IPL title by defending a mere total of 118 runs, she mentioned her teammate and Bangladesh skipper Salma Khatun’s name separately. The Indian star said that the spell of Tigress off-spinner made the difference in the final.
Off spinners Salma Khatun and Deepti Sharma helped Trailblazers successfully defend 118 against two-time champions Supernovas. Riding on the back of their captain Smriti Mandhana’s first fifty of the season, Trailblazers made a solid start but were eventually restricted to a below-par 118 courtesy the first-ever fifer of the competition, by Radha Yadav.
However, on a wicket assisting spinners, Deepti's double strikes at the start and Salma’s triple-wicket in the penultimate over, where she also accounted for Harmanpreet Kaur's wicket, ended Supernovas hopes of completing a hat-trick of titles.
Praising Salma at the end of the final, Smriti said, “She was awesome. That kind of spell makes you win the match. She is an experienced player. I just told her to believe in herself and she did. Her spell was the match-winning spell and that made the difference.”
Salma got the ball in the 13th over of the innings and bowled four overs in one spell. She gave 5 runs in her first over. Then again gave 5 runs in the second over. The batsmen of Supernovas could not take more than 4 runs from her next over.
Salma saved her best for the last and in the 19th over of the innings. After running out Anju Patil, Salma effectively sealed the game in the Trailblazers’ favour by getting rid of Harmanpreet and Vastrakar off the remaining deliveries as the Supernovas were reduced to 95/7, needing another 24 off the final over. Salma signed off with superb figures of 3/18 at the end of her quota.
