The final of the 2024 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) will be played between Madhya Pradesh and Mumbai. Rajat Patidar's explosive fifty saw MP beat Delhi by 7 wickets in the second semi-final. Patidar scored 66 runs off 29 balls. Mumbai defeated Baroda by 6 wickets in the first semi-final. Both the matches were played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.
Madhya Pradesh has made it to the finals of SMAT after 13 years. In 2011, the team lost the final against Bengal by 1 run. The 2021–22 Ranji Trophy final was also held between Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh, with MP winning the title match.
Mumbai wins the title in 2022, MP awaits first title Madhya Pradesh entered the knockouts after defeating defending champions Punjab in the group stage. The team made it to the finals only once in 2011, but lost to Bengal. On the other hand, Mumbai won the title in 2022 by defeating Himachal Pradesh in the final. The team has also reached the finals for the second time.
MP restricted Delhi to 146 runs MP won the toss and elected to bowl at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. For Delhi, Anuj Rawat scored 33, Priyansh Arya 29 and Mayank Rawat scored 24 runs. The rest of the batsmen could not do anything special and the team could only score 146 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Venkatesh Iyer took 2 wickets for 12 runs from Madhya Pradesh. Tripuresh Singh, Awesh Khan and Kumar Karthikeya got 1 wicket each.
Ishant gave MP the opening shot Against a target of 147 runs, Ishant Sharma gave Delhi a good start. He sent Arpit Gaur and Subhranshu Senapati to the pavilion in the first 3 overs. Senapati scored 7 runs, Arpit couldn't even open the account. Harsh Gawli then scored a quick 18-ball 30, but was caught out in the seventh over.
Patidar won the match with a century partnership After losing 3 wickets for 46 runs, Rajat Patidar and Harpreet Singh Bhatia took over the innings. Bhatia rotated the strike, while Patidar started playing big shots at the other end. Patidar hit 6 fours and 2 sixes in an innings of 66 runs. He shared a 106-run partnership with Bhatia to lead the team to victory in just 15.4 overs. Bhatia was not out scoring 46 runs. He hit a winning six against Suyesh Sharma.
Rahane scored a century, Mumbai won by 6 wickets
Mumbai won the toss and decided to bowl at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Baroda scored 158 runs for 7 wickets in 20 overs. Mumbai chased down the target of 159 runs in 17.2 overs by losing 4 wickets. Ajinkya Rahane played an innings of 98 runs off 56 balls. He was declared as the player of the match.
- Rahane has scored 50+ runs for the 12th time for Mumbai in T20 cricket. He surpassed Shreyas Iyer's record of 11 times.
Mumbai-Baroda match report from here…
Mumbai won the toss and chose to bowl, the captain said – bowling is our strength Mumbai won the toss and decided to bowl. Captain Shreyas Iyer said on this – 'In the last few matches we have done well by bowling first and will continue the same in the future.'
Baroda captain Krunal Pandya throwing the coin.
The game was stopped due to rain The game had to be stopped due to rain during Baroda's innings. However, after some time the rain stopped and the match resumed.
The game had to be stopped for a while due to rain.
Rawat-Pandya's 50+ run partnership from Baroda Batting after losing the toss, Baroda got off to a mixed start. The team scored 49 runs for the loss of one wicket in the Powerplay. After losing the first wicket for 23 runs, opener Shashwat Rawat made a fifty partnership with captain Krunal Pandya. Both shared 50 runs in 38 balls.
The team's middle order was shattered as Krunal Pandya was dismissed for a personal score of 30 runs. Bhanu Pania, who played an unbeaten innings of 134 runs against Sikkim, could score only 2 runs. While Hardik Pandya added 5 runs.
Suryansh Shedge took 2 wickets from Mumbai.
Baroda set a target of 159 runs, Shivalik top scorer Shivalik Sharma played an unbeaten innings of 36 runs off 24 balls. Opener Shashwat Rawat scored 33 runs, captain Krunal Pandya scored 30 runs and Atit Seth scored 22 runs. Hardik Pandya was dismissed for 5 runs. Suryansh Shaj took 2 wickets. Mohit Awasthi, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dubey, Tanush Kotian and Atharva Ankolekar took one wicket each.
3 Baroda batsmen scored 30 or more runs. Which includes Shashwat Rawat, Krunal Pandya and Shivalik Sharma.
Mixed start for Mumbai, scores cross 50 in Powerplay Chasing 159 runs, Mumbai had a mixed start. The team lost the first wicket on the score of 30 runs. Here Prithvi Shaw was dismissed for 8 runs. Hardik Pandya sent him to the pavilion.
Mumbai's opener Prithvi Shaw was dismissed for 8 runs. He was dismissed by Hardik Pandya.
Rahane's fifty, along with Iyer take the score past 100 After losing the first wicket for 30 runs, opener Ajinkya Rahane along with captain Shreyas Iyer took the team's score past 100. Both shared 88 runs off 56 balls for the second wicket. After Iyer was dismissed for 118, Rahane shared a 40-run partnership with Suryakumar Yadav to give the team victory.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
