Sachin Baby

Abhishek Singh ∙ 19 Jan 2021

SMAT 2021: How Kerala lost the plot to get knocked out of the tournament

With 12 needed from the last over and a set Sachin Baby ( 66 off 34 balls), who alongside Salman Nazir scored 13 off Mohit Sharma in the last over, at the crease, facing a bowler (Arun Chaprana) who had already given 42 in his three overs in the game so far, and still the Kerala team is beaten by four runs in the match. Yes, it was that sort of a day at the office for Kerala, probably the most promising unit in the entire Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021. With this loss at the Wankhede, they were knocked out of the SMA Trophy 2021 as they ended with 12 points from five games, and Haryana, which beat Kerala and all the other teams in the Group-D qualified as the group topper. Kerala couldn’t even qualify as one of the two best second-placed teams in the elite groups because it lost to Andhra in its last encounter. Kerala, which chased a total of 196 and 212 against teams like Mumbai and Delhi failed to chase 199 against Haryana and could only make 112 against Andhra Pradesh, a side which was beaten easily by the likes of Delhi, Haryana, and even Pondicherry. The difference between the two big wins and the two losses was that in the two wins, the batsmen, who were settled, played throughout the innings to make sure that the team crossed the line. For example, Mohammed Azharuddeen banned throughout the game against Mumbai to get his team through while Uthappa got out on 95 against Delhi, only after making sure that Kerala wouldn’t lose from that situation. But in the game against Andhra, no batsman apart from Baby could connect the ball well and hence the scoreboard just ticked along, instead of racing away like it usually does in T20s. In this game against Haryana, skipper Samson and Baby did get starts, scoring a fifty each, but they just couldn't take their team across the line. And that was a big let down. In this game, chasing a total 198 set up by the Haryana team, even the opener Azharuddeen gotta start making 35 off just 25 balls, but couldn’t continue and repeat what he did against the Mumbai side For Haryana, Shivam Chauhan made 59 off 34 balls, before Rahul Tewatia finished it off in style by scoring 41 off 26 balls. Here is the Full Scorecard