On Thursday, up to 17 teams competed for the remaining eight knockout spots in the final round of the group stage at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). After a fascinating day of play, this point was clear. Punjab will not be able to defend their title this season despite Abhishek Sharma’s heroics and Mohammed Shami will get a chance to get more playing time following Bengal and Ajinkya Rahane’s brilliant performance for Mumbai. But keep the conversation going about the Kolkata Knight Riders captaincy. Here are Thursday’s highlights:
Hat-trick hero Bhuvneshwar sends UP to knockouts
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, signed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for INR 10.75 crore, has proven that he is not yet a spent force. A hat-trick against Jharkhand in a match-winning effort helped Uttar Pradesh secure a place in the quarter-finals where they will face Andhra on Monday.
UP’s captain Bhuvneshwar recorded figures of 4-1-6-3 with all his wickets coming in his final over as Jharkhand chased 161 and fell short by 10 runs. Among Bhuvneshwar’s wickets was that of the big-hitting Robin Minz. It was thanks to all-rounder Anukul Roy, who batted at No. 5 for a 44-ball 91, that Jharkhand came so close.
Earlier in the tournament, Bhuvneshwar surpassed Jasprit Bumrah to become the first Indian seamer to take 300 T20 wickets. Among Indians, only Yuzvendra Chahal (364), Piyush Chawla (319) and R Ashwin (310) have more T20 wickets than Bhuvneshwar (308).
Shami continues his pain-free return.
Shami picked up three wickets in another clear sign that he is slowly returning to full match fitness as Bengal storms into the quarter-finals where they will face Chandigarh.
In the seventh over of the contest, Shami took three for 26 as Bengal restricted Rajasthan to 153 for nine, while half-centuries from Abishek Porel and Sudip Gharami helped them to a seven-wicket victory.
Shami has achieved his entire quota of overs (27.3 out of 28) in seven matches so far and has taken eight wickets at an economy rate of 7.67. Prior to SMAT, Shami returned a match haul of seven wickets against Madhya Pradesh in the fifth round of the Ranji Trophy last month, his first competitive outing since last year’s World Cup final.
Bengal will face Chandigarh in the quarter-finals on Monday.
Rahane 95 achieves Mumbai’s highest SMAT chase record
In a must-win match, Mumbai broke their previous best of 227 runs to beat Andhra and set up a quarter-final on Wednesday against Vidarbha, the team they beat in last season’s Ranji final. Rahane’s 95 off 54 balls (9 fours and 4 sixes) gave Mumbai the chase till the end, which Suryansh Shedge finished off with a scorcher.
Set at an impressive 230 thanks to KS Bharat’s unbeaten 53-ball 93, Mumbai were bowled out for 34 off 15 balls on the back of a rousing opening stand of 51 in just four overs between Rahane and Prithvi Shaw. Then they hit the choppy waters with Shreyas. Iyer (25) and Suryakumar Yadav (4) fell in quick succession.
Rahane scored 54 off just 31 balls, assisted by Shivam Dube. Dube’s contribution to the partnership was an 18-ball 34. At one stage, Mumbai needed 26 from 10, at which point Shedge took 2 for 2 and hit two fours and three sixes to finish with an unbeaten 8-ball 30. There are 3 balls remaining.
A win would have helped Andhra advance directly to the quarter-finals. They now have to play the pre-quarters as Mumbai and Andhra have the same points and Mumbai is at the top of the table as they went head-to-head with Andhra earlier in the league stage. Mumbai’s win also eliminated Kerala from the competition.
Gujarat was eliminated despite winning 6 out of 7 matches.
When Gujarat were bowled out for 251 for their first five against Karnataka, there was no guessing about the heartache that would follow, thanks to opener Aarya Desai’s 40 for 73 and Axar Patel’s unbeaten 20-ball 56. They restricted Karnataka to 203, with Axar picking 22 runs from four overs in a 48-run win.
However, Saurashtra overpowered Gujarat by chasing down the target of 137 against Tripura in just 13.3 overs. In the end, Baroda, Saurashtra and Gujarat all finished with 24 points, with Gujarat losing the knockout spot as its NRR was 0.335 lower than Saurashtra’s.
