Sophie Devine: No crowd for women's games is unfortunate

Sophie Devine

New Zealander all-rounder Sophie Devine expressed disappointment at the scarce turn out for the opening game of the Women's T20 Challenge here but was hopeful of a full house in the future.

The second edition of the women's tournament kick started in stunning fashion on Monday with some fierce hitting by the two captains Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur. In the end, the Mandhana-led Trailblazers pulled-off a thrilling two-run win against Supernovas. However, like the last time, the stadium was far from full despite free entry.

"It is really unfortunate that in women's games we don't have big crowds but hopefully after tonight's match the people will come to the stadium and watch us play,"
Sophie said at the post-match conference.

"We would love to have big crowds but we know we need to put in good performances. This match was fantastic and the next two games and the final will get good crowd," Sophie, who scored 32 off 22 for the Supernovas, said. The tournament which has three teams playing each other in the round robin format gives the opportunity to 27 domestic players to showcase their talent and the New Zealander was impressed by the standard of the domestic players. "I and all the overseas players have been really impressed with the standard of the domestic players.

The catching may not have been that good but the fielding in Indian cricket has come along leaps and bounds," Sophie said. Talking about the game, she said the track was a bit tricky and commended Supernovas' skipper Harmanpreet's performance. "We needed 30 off last three overs on a pitch that was a little tricky but Harmanpreet took us very close." Harmanpreet in turn, praised Devine. "I had the confidence but Sophie bowled the 19th over well and that changed it for us," she said.

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates