Ranji Trophy 2021-22 | Match-Day 2, Day 3 - Daily Roundup
Vijay Hazare Trophy: Vishnu Solanki continues form as Baroda thump Tripura
Heavy pocketed, rebranded Punjab walk in IPL mini auction with ‘Get Big or Get Out’ attitude
IPL SWOT Analysis: Set Sunrisers Hyderabad still looking to fix middle order troubles
IPL SWOT Analysis | Areas SRH need to target ahead of mini auctions It is Indian Premier League season once again. Being hosted just four months after the UAE edition, the tournament has not given much time to the franchises to make comprehensive assessments of their assets or for that matter the fans to see their favourite stars in International/Domestic action. But as the immortal lines in the Godfather go - ‘You gotta do what you gotta do’, the eight IPL franchises released several players from their teams ahead of the mini auction. Big names such as Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Chris Morris were let go on January 20th with teams either looking to completely restructure existing combinations or to reduce the salary burden on their heads. While teams like KXIP and RCB released as many as 9 and 10, KKR and SRH chose to reserve their core. SRH in particular, released their fringe players who were not in the scheme of things last year and would have warmed the bench this season again given the teams affinity to trust its combination irrespective of the results. And SRH are unique that way. In the era where teams are dominated by star powerg, constant chopping and changing, SRH have invested in underrated individuals who either have a high ceiling or are trusted enough by the management. Take Kane Williamson for example. Captain for New Zealand in all formats, Williamson has always lived in the shadows of the prolific David Warner - a bonafide IPL legend. Playing an average of 8 matches per season (barring 2018), a player of Williamson’s pedigree and stature could potentially have fallen out with the management, but it’s just not how things work at the SRH. Speaking to OneCricket Williamson’s teammate Shreevats Goswami provided a glimpse into the team culture. “The way that Hyderabad treats its players is special,” said the Bengal keeper-batsman with pride. “They try and rope in team men who are good people on and off the field which reflects in the kind of cricket we play around the year. They are very consistent in choosing the kind of players and they know what they want.” Goswami added. This has reflected in this season’s retention list as well. At the moment, the SRH squad stands at - Batsman - David Warner (c), Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh, Abdul Samad All rounder - Mohammad Nabi, Vijay Shankar, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, Abhishek Sharma Wicketkeeper - Jonny Bairstow, Shreevats Goswami,, Wriddhiman Saha Bowler - Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Released - Sanjay Yadav, B Sandeep, Billy Stanlake, Fabian Allen, Yarra Prithviraj With a total of three slots to fill (1 overseas) with Rs 10.75 crore remaining, it seems unlikely that SRH are going to hunt for a big money overseas player. A unique last season Almost nothing went right for SRH in the last season of the IPL. An injury laden season saw Mitchell Marsh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha limping off the pitch. With three key players out and their talismanic openers out of form, Hyderabad struggled. There came a point in the season where the team needed someone to step up. And fortunately there were many. Kane Williamson, brought into the XI to rescue an ailing opening combination and disastrous middle order, scored 317 runs from 12 matches at an average of 45.25. In rare matches that Williamson flattered, Indian fledglings like Priyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma repaid the faith the franchise has put in them. In SRH’s match against CSK on 2 October, the youngsters walked into the pitch at a tough phase and bailed out the team by scoring 82 runs between them. Garg was adjudged the man of the match for his brilliant 26 ball 51. The issue with the younglings like Abdul Samad, Virat Singh, Garg and Sharma was that their performances were not consistent enough. Having said that nobody would hold anything against them for not being able to perform against the best in the business in a pandemic ridden world. Issues & their remedies in Auction Opening combination The opening combination of Johnny Bairstow and David Warner have been prolific over the years for SRH, but that changed last season. An automatic choice in any limited overs team in the world, both players struggled for form. Given SRH are a top heavy team with a fixed combination this became a big issue. While the stats aren’t that bad with Warner 548 runs from 16 matches and Bairstow 345 from 11, fact of the matter is that they were nowhere close to their previous exploits. With both of them hovering around 128-130 strike rate it took Wriddhiman Saha to provide the impetus at the top deep in the tournament. In the four matches he played before getting sidelined due to a groin injury, Saha scored 214 runs in just four games at a strike rate of 140, much better than the two foreigners. Safe to say, if Saha stays fit, SRH might try to do the same which will also open an added foreigner spot in the rest of the team. Injury laden season and One prolific all-rounder Last season was a freak! With first choice Indian keeper, frontline pacer and their prime all rounder injured, SRH were stretched thin. But, like discussed earlier, people showed up. One of the best utility substitutions was Jason Holder who had to fly in as an injury substitute to Mitchell Marsh who lasted for just four balls in the tournament. A horrible slip on the crease meant that his ankle took a nasty knock and he had to be flown to Australia for treatment. Holder in his first season with the Hyderabad franchise took no time to get warmed up. 14 wickets in 7 matches at a strike rate of 16.64? Safe to say, that he is here to stay. SRH’s persisting middle order issues I get it! SRH are a top heavy team. The openers are exceptional who can take the game away from the opposition on their day, the number three is probably the best technician with bat the world has ever seen. But, all of that comes at a cost. Big budget players at the top who need time to express themselves in the crease means that the middle and the lower middle have to go big or get out. This becomes a problem in rare days where there is a downfall at the top, because you just don’t have that kind of firepower down in the middle to make sure that the boat stays afloat. And this is where Sunrisers should look to plug holes. If the franchise is looking to trust domestic players to take them through, they could look into the likes of uncapped hitters like Vishnu Solanki and Sharukh Khan, who have been very successful off late. Both these players can go big and have shown maturity in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy that they can repair a broken innings. Their specialisation as a pure batsmen could be fancied by the Hyderabad team because they the likes of Abdul Samad and Abhishek Sharma who barring their big hitting attributes and can bowl a couple of overs if needed. Slots that are already booked It would not be wild to assume that SRH are going to stick to the balance they found late in the tournament last season. The combination they settled in came late in the tournament and included two players that were never sure shot starters for the franchise. Yes, I am talking about Kane Williamson and Jason Holder. Both were incredible in their leadership and skills with bat and ball respectively and you can almost guarantee that they would be automatic choice this time around. Oh wait! What if Johnny Bairstow becomes the leading scorer in India vs England series? No, never mind, get back to the piece. So, getting back to our combinations. The confirmed overseas slots are as follows Rashid Khan David Warner Kane Williamson Jason Holder This of course means that SRH open with Saha who also doubles up as the keeper and then they bank on an Indian middle order. In the existing set up it would be as follows. Manish Pandey Priyam Garg/Vijay Shankar Abdul Samad Abhishek Sharma Once we have that out of our way, SRH will bank upon the bowling prowess of T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Sandeep Sharma to control the run flow of the opposition innings. Now that already gives our first XI Warner ©, Saha (wk), Williamson, Pandey, Garg/Shankar, Samad, Holder, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid, Bhuvi, Natarajan Against these players you also have a sizable pool of reserves in Johnny Bairstow, Mitchell Marsh, Mohd Nabi, Shreevats Goswami, Sandeep Sharma, Shabaz Nadeem, Khaleel Ahmed and Virat Singh waiting to break into the team. Potential Targets Abhimanyu Easwawarn (20 lakhs) The clear lack for a proper technically good opener has haunted SRH for long. While the choice for an Indian opener means that you would end up shifting down Wriddhi Saha to the middle order, but it is better to have back up in case things go wrong. Abhimanyu Easwaran has piled up big numbers in the last 4 seasons in domestic cricket and was rewarded a call-up to the Indian side to train as one of the reserves. Not only has he been successful for Bengal, he has done well with the India A side where he was supervised by Rahul Dravid. Despite having an off year with the bat in 2019, Easwaran’s List A average stands at 49.18 from 57 matches. If we were to look more specifically at the T20 side of things, Easwaran bats at an average of 34 from 19 games with a strike rate of 131 in domestic cricket. Vishnu Solanki (20 lakhs) The star of the show in the SMAT this season for Baroda, Vishnu Solanki showed nerves of steel when his team was reeling under pressure. Under the pump, Solanki scored 267 runs from eight matches to take his team to the final where the eventually lost against Tamil Nadu Shakib Al Hasan (2 crores) An integral part of the team, Shakib Al Hasan and SRH parted ways after the former was banned by the International Cricket Council for not reporting a corruption incident. Since his return to cricket, Hasan has done well, but his price tag and injury woes could be something that would worry the Sunrisers. But considering that the management does not have much faith in Mohammad Nabi, they could try and sneak in a bid for Hasan in case he comes below the 3 crore mark. Shahrukh Khan (20 lakhs) The big hitter from Tamil Nadu earned plaudits from Dinesh Karthik after he pulled off an unlikely rescue effort against Himachal Pradesh in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Not only did he hit the Himachal bowlers all around the park while others looked flummoxed, he hit them with such disdain that it looked like he was batting in a different pitch under different conditions. His 40* in that game for sure will earn interest from other teams (read Kolkata) but it is possible that his style of batting and his intimidating frame could complement the likes of Jason Holder in the SRH batting line up. Riley Meredith (40 lakhs) The big, tall fast bowler from Australia. Oh wait, isn’t that what SRH had in Billy Stanlake whom they let go? Ya, whatever, Riley Meredith is better for sure. A genuine pacer who can bowl upwards of 155 kilometers per hour, Meredith has emerged out as one of the best pacers in the Big Bash League this year. Having picked up 12 wickets at a strike rate of just 13.52, Meredith is the perfect back up fast bowler to have. Good thing about Meredith is that he isn’t a one trick pony. The 24-year-old has a good short delivery, a brilliant inswinger and a deceptive cutter that dips in the air, all good attributes to have on an Indian pitch. The only issue could be that Meredith might be in the radar of several teams who have the genuine need of a primary attacker. So, that gives us our team. The preferred front XI for the Hyderabad based franchise is mostly settled. Given that they have just three slots to fill, it is entirely possible that they will be looking to strengthen their back-ups, especially the Indian ones this season. If SRH were to stretch it, they could end up buying a good middle order option for the season, but that would be it. Early curtains in the auction to hope for a longer run in the tournament.
Ten uncapped Indians who could fetch big amount in the mini IPL auctions
After the conclusion of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2021, the next road for the Indian domestic players leads up to the IPL mini-auction which are scheduled to take place on 18th February 2021. The SMAT was a real testing ground and a lot of players showcased their brilliant talent and the names include the likes of Kings XI Punjab’s Prabhsimaran Singh, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Siddarth Kaul, Chennai Super Kings’ Narayan Jagadeesan and R Sai Kishore. However, there were few performers who either haven’t got a team or have been released by theirs and yet performed brilliantly in the tournament to get noticed by the media as well as the scouts. Manimaran Siddarth Part of the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise, Manimaran Siddarth didn’t get a chance in front of more accomplished spinners like Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav. Even in SMAT, he wasn’t given a chance until the Final. But once he got the opportunity, the slow left-arm bowler made sure that he doesn’t let go of the opportunity and picked up four wickets in just his first three overs to send chills down the Baroda batting lineup. He is not a big turner of the ball, the action is also clean and thus on Indian pitches, he could be a great prospect. Considering that he is just 22 years of age, teams might go for him as a future investment too. Vishnu Solanki The star of the SMAT without a doubt. He might not be the highest run-getter, neither the ost prolific hitter o the ball, but he scored when it mattered the most. From taking his team through the quarter-finals by scoring the last 16 runs in just three balls, to being there till then against all odds in the final against Tamil Nadu and making sure that his team reached a fighting total of 120, Solanki is the kind of middle-order batsman that every team would want to have. It’s not like he performed only in the knockouts, rather in the entire tournament he scored 367 runs in eight innings with an average of 53.40 and a healthy strike rate of more than 128. Moreover, Solanki, 28, has experience of playing on Indian pitches by his side, having made his T20 debut way back in 2013. In his entire career, he has scored 807 runs in 34 innings with an average of more than 35 and a strike rate touching 129. Mohammed Azharuddeen Although one-game sensation in the tournament as far as his heroics are concerned, but with that single performance only, Kerala’s Mohammaed Azharuddeen made everyone notice him. His 137* off 54 balls against an established side like Mumbai, in a televised game, meant that everybody took notice. Although he wasn’t able to back it up with more solid performances, still his potential to hit big is good enough to earn him a decent contract in the upcoming auctions. He scored a total 214 runs in five innings at an average of 53.50 and a strike rate of 194.54 in the entire SMAT 2021. The only thing that can go against him is his inconsistent nature of batting. Lukman Meriwala Another star for Baroda this season, Lukman Meriwala hit his best form, picking 15 wickets in eight games and turning out to be real match-winner in few of the games, winning matches singlehandedly with his performances with the ball. The semi-final against a star-studded Punjab batting lineup was once such game where he broke the back o the Punjab batting by picking the wickets of their two best batsmen in Prabhsimarn and Abhishek Sharma very early in the innings. While taking the 15 wickets, his average remained a brilliant 13.76 while his economy rate hovered around 6.5 which is exceptional for a fast bowler. With a best of 5/8 this 29-year-old left-arm pacer from Makan, Baroda packs a punch and should be a key prospect in the upcoming IPL auction, especially for teams looking for domestic pacers. Hari Nishanth Coming from the picturesque town of Ooty, Hari Nishanth is a beautiful hitter of the ball as he showcased in this edition of the SMAT, scoring 246 runs in eight innings with the best score of 92 unbeaten against Jharkhand. Initially, he was hitting the balls amazingly, but the form waned out a bit in the laster part of the tournament and that is the only thing that might go against the left-hander. Shahrukh Khan Another batsman from the this year’s SMAT winning team set up, Shahrukh Khan is different from the rest in the sense that he is a ‘see the ball hit the ball’ kind of batsman, who is most likely to be picked by teams as they are looking for such talents to inculcate in their team. Another thing that plays in his favour is that he is not inconsistent, meaning that id he gets an opportunity to bat, he makes sure that the opportunity is utilised. He showed a glimpse of it in the recently concluded SMAT as he remained not out in the three out of the four innings that he got to bat in. Shahrukh is a big hitter, a prolific finisher and someone who could roll his arm over as well, apart from being a brilliant fielder. A perfect package in a giant-sized man who shares his name with the biggest cine star of the present era, the Chennai born has his best shot at being picked in this year’s auction. Avi Barot The Gujarati, who found a place in Saurashtra team finally had a season to be proud of as after making his first-class debut in 2011 for Gujarat, he hadn’t really had a season where he could claim a spot in the team without an if or but. The 28-year old however made good use of his potential, scoring a scintillating century (122) against Goa apart from hitting a 44 ball 93 against Vidarbha. In total, he scored 383 runs in just five innings at an average of 56 and a strike rate of more than 184, the highest among the top five run-scorers in the SMAT 2021. Ashutosh Aman The one-man Army Bihar has been smashing records consistently but hasn’t git the reward he must have by now. After becoming the highest wicket-taker in a Ranji Trophy season, he has now topped the wickets chart in this year’s SMAT. Aman, 34, took 16 wickets in just six innings with an unbelievable average of 7.62 and an economy rate of 5.08. No doubt that he played most of his matches against Plate teams, but so did so many other players, yet he was the only one to come out on the top. It wasn’t only against Plate teams that he performed well, the left-arm orthodox bowler even did well against an established side like Rajasthan as well. The ball with which he took out the Rajasthan opener Bharat Sharma was one o the best deliveries of the tournament when a ball pitching on the middle stump just turned the right amount to pick the off stump shattering all the defences of a quality batter. Aman is no mug with the bat either as he has to his credit a century in first-class along with four fifties. The skipper of Bihar has 161 scalps in domestic cricket in just over three years of active competitive cricket, suggesting that he is hungry to perform well. Even after such record-breaking performances, he is not picked up by anyone, then it would be really unfortunate for him and Bihar cricket. Akash Deep Another one of those many talented cricketers who were born in Bihar but chose to play for a neighbouring state due to lack of infrastructure, Akash Deep is a great swing bowler from Bengal. He wasn’t at his best in this year’s SMAT he could pick only seven wickets in five games. But his one spell against the Hyderabad side showed what he is capable of doing as he picked 4/35 in this game. But this is not the only thing to make a case for himself in the IPL auction. Even in the last Ranji season, he picked 35 wickets to go along with his 15 wickets in the last year’s SMAT. Ankit Rajpoot Ankit Rajpoot already has a taste of IPL having played for the Royals in the last season and represented many teams over the last six seasons that he has played. He has 24 wickets in 29 IPL games and even after not being able to put in a great performance for the Uttar Pradesh unit in the SMAT 2021, chances are that he would be one o the highest-paid unpaid Indian stars. Having picked 101 wickets in 82 T20 games, he has experience on his side and hence is likely to be backed by franchises to be picked.
Manimaran Siddharth shines as Tamil Nadu wins it’s second Syed Mushtaq Ali title
It was a case for second time lucky for Tamil Nadu as the Dinesh Karthik led side, riding on the destructive bowling from spinner Manimaran Siddharth, won the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2021 against Baroda by seven wickets at the Sardar Patel Stadium Stadium, Motera. Siddarth, playing his first game of the SMAT 2021 took the Baroda team off guard and picked up four wickets to break the back of Kedar Devdhar’s team’s batting line up. Siddarth, who was awarded the Man of the Match for his 4/20 match-winning performance, said, “I just wanted to keep it simple for the team and it paid off. I'm glad it paid off. I've been working hard on my variations. My arm ball always gives me wickets and I just go with it.” Chasing a small but testing target of 121, the men in yellow started it cautiously and added 26 in the first four overs before Narayan Jagadeesan, the highest run-scorer of this season, was trapped by Lukman Meriwala short ball. Baba Aparajit then played it to the plan anchoring one end as Hari Nishant kept the scoreboard running before he got out against the run of play on a Babashafi Pathan’s delivery. Skipper Dinesh Karthik then combined with Aparajith to finish the game in a hurry. The two added 34 runs in which Karthik’s share was of 22. In an attempt to increase the flow of runs he mistimed a pull shot to give Atit Seth his first strike. Shahrukh Khan then did what has been doing in this tournament, finish the game in a hurry. With his quickfire 18 off seven balls, Tamil Nadu finished the game in the 18t over itself with Aparajith unbeaten on 29 off 35. Skipper Karthik was delighted with the win especially after a one-run loss against Karnataka. He praised the team and said that hopped that much like T Natarajan and Washington Sundar, who have made it to team India, more of Tamil Nadu cricketers would reach higher levels. “It really hurt us last year, we lost by a whisker. This year we had our sights on the knockouts and then we got consistent. It's the sign of a good team. I think just the fact that there are players like Natarajan and Sundar in the Indian team, who were in this team last year, is the sign of a team doing well. I'm sure there are a few who'll go on from this team as well.” “I think our support staff has done a great job. The assistant coach Prasanna, he and I do all the strategy work,’ he added thanking the support staff for their work behind the scenes in keeping the team ready for all the matches. Earlier in the evening, winning the toss, Tamil Nadu decided to bowl first. His decision wasn’t a surprise, but the way he operated his bowlers hit like a great shock to Baroda who did not seem prepared for it. One after another Karthik kept on introducing spin bowlers and they kept on chipping away with the wickets. With Siddarth four wickets and a total of six wickets down for 36, Vishnu Solanki, the hero from the quarter-finals for the Baroda team, got into a partnership with Atit Seth and the duo added 58 for the eighth wicket in 57 balls before Seth was removed by Sonu Yadav. Solanki, although missed his fifty as he was run out for 49 of 55 balls, but hit quite a few boundaries, including two Helicopter shot sixes to take 49 off the last four overs. Bhargav Bhatt too hit a few lusty blows, in the end, to get Baroda to 120. Baroda reached from 36/6 to 120/9 and at the end of halfway mark, they would have taken it with both the hands. Kedar Devdhar, the Baroda skipper, who showed exemplary leadership in the entire tournament in the absence of full-time skipper Krunal Pandya, said, “I want to congratulate the TN team and also my team. Without our big players, we reached here. Win and loss is part of the game, we should be proud of this effort. The support staff and strength and conditioning guys, the assistant coach, the players, have all put in big efforts in the tournament. Once in a while you have days like this, it's alright. We'll take the positives from here.”
SMAT 2021 Final: Tamil Nadu hold edge over Baroda
Dinesh Karthik led Tamil Nadu will be playing in their third Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final and for the first time in two consecutive finals after being beaten by Karnataka in a thriller last year. This time around the opposition is Baroda, who have shocked most cricket pundits by beating two heavyweights in Haryana and Punjab in the knockouts and Gujarat at the group stage, remaining unbeaten throughout their campaign. Battle of perseverance Both the teams in the finals are battle-hardened having come out of all sorts of trouble in the entire tournament and remaining unbeaten throughout. While Tamil Nadu faced their biggest hurdle in the quarterfinal against Himachal Pradesh, Baroda had been subjected to danger right in their first game against Uttarakhand which they won by four runs and then again against Haryana which they won on the last ball of the match through Vishnu Solanki’s heroics. Thus in this game both the teams would be looking to bank on their skills to come out of the troublesome situations. A lot will also depend on the captaincy of Kedar Devdhar and Dinesh Karthik as both of them have been great with their decision-making skills. How they deal with the best team they are going to face would be interesting to see. Baroda would also be a bit more pumped in a way that they have beaten quality sides on their run-up to the finals in their last three games while Tamil Nadu’s win over Himachal and Rajasthan could not be rated as highly, mostly due to the absence of stars in both the teams as compared to those present in Punjab and Haryana, which Baroda have beaten. Players to watch out for Both the teams have some great players who have shown throughout the tournament. Some of them have really shone and turned the game on its head from unbelievable situations. Thus, in the final, the following players can turn out to be the game-changers. Tamil Nadu Narayan Jagadeesan Jagadeesan has been Mr Consisitent for the team from down south so far with 350 runs in seven innings with an average of almost 88 (87.50), which is huge for a T20 tournament. His strike rate of 142.27 is also as good as it gets for an opener. Thus he is going to be an important wicket for Broda, although he hasn’t been able to make a big impact in the Knockouts so far. Sai Kishore Sai Kishore is another Tamil Nadu youngster who has utilised the opportunity to make a case for himself, especially in this tournament with an amazing economy rate of 5.16, although he has taken just eight wickets in seven games. But more than the wickets, it’s the amount of pressure that he puts on the batsmen which eventually leads to wickets for other bowlers too. Dinesh Karthik The name is enough for this man. With the amount of experience that he has got of playing at higher levels, he is always going to be a man to watch out for. In this tournament heh has socred 161 runs but has been out only twice in seven innings and has an average of 80 alongside a strike rate of 161. Baroda Kedar Devdhar For Baroda, their acting captain (in absence of Krunal Pandya) Kedar Devdhar has done amazingly well as he is the third-highest run-scorer in the tournament with 333 runs at an average of 83 and with a best of 99*. He occupies one end and plays the anchor and therefore could be dangerous as he allows the likes of Vishnu Solankis and Karthik Kakade to attack from the other end before takes on the charge after settling down as well. Lukman Meriwala Meriwala could be really dangerous and it was evident during the semi-finals against Punjab as he removed two of the best Punjab batsmen Prabhsimran Singh and Abhishek Sharma quite early in the game. He is quick and can bounce the batsmen out as well along with the ability to bring the ball back in for the right-handers. He has so far picked up 14wickets in the tournament with a brilliant average of 11.78 and an economy rate of 6.22 Vishnu Solanki Solanki has won a game that was almost over for Baroda with 15 required from three balls. But apart from that also he has scored 218 runs in seven innings with an average of 54 and thus he could be a good prospect for Broda at the top of the order. Pitch Report The pitch at the Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad has been on the slower side in the day games and n the night, it has been difficult to chase down totals, even as a lot of dew is there on the ground. There is an initial movement for fast bowlers in the evening and that plays an important role for the team fielding second as the fast bowlers come into play. Weather and Toss The weather at Motera for tomorrow is going to be perfect for a cricket game as there is no chance of rain. The dew is going to heavy as usual and therefore the skipper winning the toss would choose to field first. Tamil Nadu Strongest XI Hari Nishanth, N Jagadeesan, Baba Aparajith, Arun Karthik, Sonu Yadav, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Shahrukh Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, M Mohammed, Murugan Ashwin, Aswin Crist Baroda Strongest XI Kedar Devdhar (c), Smit Patel (wk), Vishnu Solanki, Abhimanyu Rajput, Ninad Rathva, Atit Sheth, Bhanu Pania, Babashafi Pathan, Lukman Meriwala, Bhargav Bhatt, Karthik Kakade
SMAT 2021 QF: Vishnu Solanki hits six off the last ball to take Baroda into the semis
In an edge of the seat finish, Vishnu Solanki hit a six off the last delivery including 19 runs in the last over, out of which 16 came on the last three balls against Haryana to take his side Baroda into the semi-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021. Solanki, who came in at three stayed till the end to see his team through a chase that dwindled in the center uncertainty. Chasing a modest total of 149 at the Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad, Baroda got off to a cautious start with Smit Patel and Kedar Devdhar adding 33 for the first wicket in the first five overs. In fact, the Baroda team never went overboard trying to finish the chase early at any point in time in their innings except for when they had no other option in the last over. With Patel out, experienced Devdhar and Solanki added 68 in 56 balls. The chase started getting tougher as wily spinner Yuzvendra Chahal sneaked in four quick overs and eventually it came down to Baroda requiring 42 off 24 balls. It was then that Solanki turned on his destructive mode an unbelievable 19 in the last over off Sumit Kumar to take his team home. Earlier in the day, Baroda won the toss and decided to bowl first, and did exceedingly well to restrict Haryana to just 148 in their 20 overs even after Himanshu Rana and Shivam Chouhan got starts. Broda will now face Punjab in the first semi-finals of the SMA Trophy 2021 which will also be played at the Motera on 29th January. Check the Full Scorecard here: