Indian domestic cricket’s premier T20 tournament, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2018 has reached the super league stage of the tournament. This super league will feature the top 10 teams divided into 2 groups and playing against each other.
Here is the summary of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2018, Super League matches:
KARNATAKA 176/3 beat MUMBAI 174/8 by 7 wkts
Siddhesh Lad (52; 6x4s, 3x6s) and Suryakumar Yadav (59* in 28 balls; 5x6s, 3x4s) were the main scorers for Mumbai as they put 174/8 on the board. Stuart Binny took 3/36 for Karnataka. Mayank Agarwal scored 77 off 41 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes. He was supported by Karun Nair (30 off 18 balls) and Pavan Deshpande (48* in 39 balls), as Karnataka romped home by 7 wickets in hand.
PUNJAB 129/9 beat RAJASTHAN 124/8 by 5 runs
Punjab batted first and scored 129/9 with Harbhajan Singh scoring 32 in 31 balls and Sharad Lumba scoring 31 in 26 balls. SKK Ahmed took 3/17 and Deepak Chahar took 2/9 before hobbling out of field due to a hamstring injury.
Punjab needed to keep Rajasthan below 106 to qualify for the finals. Ankit Lamba hit 47 off 37 balls, MK Lomror made 21 and then Punjab picked wickets. However, Deepak Chahar braved the injury to come out and bat hit 15 runs to take his team past the 105 run mark. Though Rajasthan lost the match by 5 runs, ending up on 124/8, they qualified for the finals and Punjab were left with a consolation win. Barinder Sran took 3/22 to keep Punjab in the game.
TAMIL NADU 123/7 lost to BARODA 125/5 by 5 wkts
Tamil Nadu batted first and scored 123/7 with Aniruda making 32 off 20 and N Jagadeeshan making 28. Baroda chased down the total easily losing just 5 wickets in the process. Kedar Devdhar hit 68 off 55 balls with 11 fours. Swapnil Singh (29) made sure Baroda reached 125 and won the match.
DELHI 140/9 beat UTTAR PRADESH 137 by 3 runs
Rishabh Pant hit 58 in 34 balls with 3 sixes and 5 fours, while Milind Kumar hit 32 in 28 to take Delhi to 140/9. This was a must win match for both teams, as the winner would have made it into the finals. Israr Azim was the pick of UP bowlers for his 2/12.
Pawan Negi 2/13 and Subodh Bhati 2/28 were able to keep Delhi in the game, as UP’s star batsmen failed to go on after getting starts including captain Suresh Raina, who made 16 in 12 balls. Only Rinku Singh (34 in 26 balls) and Saurabh Kumar (33 in 18 balls) were responsible for taking UP within touching distance of the Delhi total, but fell short by 3 runs and Delhi made it into the finals.
