Darshan Nalkande

Abhishek Singh ∙ 13 Jan 2021

SMA Trophy: Azharuddeen’s scintilating hundred rocks Mumbai; Chahar, Sakariya pick five-fors as Bisht smashes 17 sixes

It was a day of reckoning for Thalangara born 26-year-old Mohammed Azharuddeen of Kerala as he hit a scintillating hundred at Wankhede to virtually put Mumbai the giants of domestic cricket out of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021. On the back of his 54 balls 137, Kerala chased the target of 197 runs in just 15.5 overs. Azharuddeen on his way to this historic knock also became the first Keralite to score a hundred in a T20 game. He hit the century in just 37 balls, which was joint third fastest for an Indian batsman. Earlier in the evening, Mumbai had set a challenging total of 196 in 20 overs, which could have been more if not for KM Asif’s brilliant 20th over in which he picked up two wickets and gave away just two runs. Suryakumar Yadav scored a 19 ball 38 while the rest of the batsmen contributed too. This was Mumbai’s second loss in as many matches and it has now become exceedingly impossible for them to qualify to the knockouts as only one team from each group qualifies. The only chance for Mumbai would be to finish among the two second-best teams out of all elite groups, but for that to happen now, it will have to depend on the results of other teams. Brief Scores: Mumbai 196/7 in 20 overs (Aditya Tare-42, KM Asif 2/26) lose to Kerala 201/2 in 15.5 overs (Mohd. Azharuddeen-137 not out, Shams Mulani- 1/41) by eight wickets. Check Full Scorecard In another of the evening matches, Rahul Chahar of Rajasthan stole the show with the ball as he spun a web around the Madhya Pradesh batting lineup in the Holkar Stadium to down the hosts by 10 runs in a low scoring encounter. Chahar’s figures of 5/14 were the main reason as to why it became a mountain of a task for the MP brigade to chase down 149. The hosts could only make 138 in their designated 20 overs and eventually lost the game. Earlier Avesh Khan of MP had stopped Rajasthan batsmen from getting to a high score by taking four wickets for 22 runs. Mahipal Lomror however top-scored for the men from the desert as he scored a brilliant 27 ball 51 laced with four boundaries and three sixes. Brief Scores: Rajasthan 148/10 in 19.2 overs (Mahipal Lomror-51, Avesh Khan- 4/22) beat Madhya Pradesh138/8 in 20 overs (Parth Sahani 74, Rahul Chahar- 5/14) by 10 runs. Check Full Scorecard In the day games, Suarashtara thrashed Vidarbha by 79 runs handing the Central India team their second consecutive loss in the tournament. While Avi Baroit was the hero with the bat for Saurashtra scoring a 44 ball 93 runs, Chetan Sakaria shone with the ball picking 5/11. Brief Scores: Saurashtra 233/7 in 20 overs (Avi Barot-93, Darshan Nalkande- 4/32) beat Vidarbha 154/10 in 17.2 overs (Jitesh Sharma-43, Chetan Sakariya- 5/11) by 79 runs. Check Full Scorecard In another record-breaking game, Puneet Bisht of Meghalaya hit 17 sixes, the joint second highest in a T20 game and the highest for an Indian in a T20 game as he scored a career-best 141 not out of 51 balls to take Meghalaya to a huge total of 230/6 in 20 Overs. The highest number of sixes have been hit by the Universe Boss Chris Gayle who hit 18 sixes in a BPL game. Gayle has also hit 17 sixes in an IPL match. The Mizoram team had no answers whatsoever to this onslaught as they could muster only 100 runs in their 20 overs, giving Meghalaya a huge 130 runs win. Brief Scores: Meghalaya 230/6 in 20 overs (Puneet Bisht- 141 not out, Lalnunkima Varte- 2/45) beat Mizoram 100/9 in 20 overs (KB Pawan-33, Aditya Singhaniya- 4/15) by 130 runs. Check Full Scorecard In other Plate group games, Bihar beat Sikkim by eight wickets where skipper Ashutosh Aman shone with the ball with figures of 4/18 while Chandigarh was able to thrash Manipur by 110 runs, courtesy some brilliant batting by Shivam Bhambri and disciplined bowling Gurinder Singh and Bipul Sharma. In another game in Chennai, Rongsen Jonathan’s Nagaland defeated Arunachal Pradesh by nine wickets. Brief Scores: Sikkim 110/8 in 20 overs (Varun Sood- 28, Ashutosh Aman- 4/18) lose to Bihar 111/2 in 19.1 overs (Mangal Mahrour- 55, Anureet Singh- 1/20) by eight wickets. Check Full Scorecard Brief Scores: Arunachal Pradesh 145/6 in 20 overs (Techi Doria-36, Kievits- 1/19) lose to Nagaland 149/1 in 15.5 overs (Shrikant Mundhe- 69 not out, Nazeeb Saiyed- 1/28) by nine wickets. Check Full Scorecard Brief Scores: Chandigarh 178/5 in 20.0 overs (Shivam Bhambri- 56, Bishworjit Singh- 2/33) beat Manipur 68/8 in 20.0 overs (Thokchom Kishan-22, Gurinder Singh- 3/10) by 110 runs. Check Full Scorecard In the day games of Group E, Haryana defeated Puducherry while an all-round Delhi won over Andhra Pradesh at Wankhede. Elsewhere in Group D, Goa defeated Services in a closely fought match in Indore to put themselves on the points table with their first win. Brief Scores: Puducherry 148-4 in 20.0 overs (Sheldon Jackson 82, Arun Chaprana- 2/19) lose to Haryana 149-4 in 19.0 overs (Himanshu Rana- 58, Pankaj Singh- 2/31) by six wickets. Check Full Scorecard Brief Scores: Andhra 124-9 in 20.0 overs (Ashwin Hebbar-32, Pradeep Sangwan- 3/33) lose to Delhi 128-4 in 17.0 overs (Anuj Rawat-33, M Harishankar Reddy- 2/40) by six wickets. Check Full Scorecard Brief Scores: Services 160-7 in 20.0 overs (Ravi Chauhan- 62, Lakshay Garg- 2/25) closed to Goa 163-5 in 19.4 overs (Aditya Kaushik- 78, Mohit Kumar- 3/32) by five wickets. Check Full Scorecard