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Mumbai thrashed Vidarbha by five wickets in the second semifinal to join Himachal Pradesh in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2022 T20 cricket tournament at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.
While chasing, Shreyas Iyer scored a brilliant 73 off 44 balls with seven fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 165.90 to single-handedly guide Mumbai to a five-wicket victory with 19 balls to spare.
After opting to bat first, Vidarbha posted a competitive total of 164/7 in 20 overs with wicketkeeper batter Jitesh Sharma top-scoring with an unbeaten 46 off 24 balls with three fours and as many sixes. In reply, Mumbai chased down the target in 16.5 overs.
This will be the first time Mumbai will play in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy since the inception of the tournament in 2006. They will face Himachal Pradesh in the final at Eden Gardens on Saturday.
.@ShreyasIyer15 & Shams Mulani played vital roles as the @ajinkyarahane88-led Mumbai beat Vidarbha & sealed a place in the #SyedMushtaqAliT20 #Final. đź‘Ť đź‘Ť #MUMvVID | #SF2 | @mastercardindia
Match Highlights 🎥 🔽 https://t.co/ijhGsZQMto pic.twitter.com/T9JFQEwAJR
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) November 3, 2022
In the first innings, Vidarbha lost some early wickets as two of their three batters from the top were dismissed inside the first four overs. Soon after the powerplay, left-arm spinner Shams Mulani struck twice in the space of 12 balls to put them in trouble at 68/4 in 9.1 overs.
Jitesh Sharma was the lone warrior and fought till the end as wickets kept falling at the other end. Vidharbha struggled to get any momentum throughout their innings until the final over of the innings when Jitesh hit Mohit Avasthi for three sixes off the final four balls and helped his side post a respectable total of 164/7 in their allotted 20 overs.
The pick of the bowlers for Mumbai was Shams Mulani who took 3/20 off his four overs while pacer Tushar Deshpande ended with figures of 2/24 from his two overs.
While chasing, Mumbai lost the wickets of skipper Ajinkya Rahane on 5 (4) and Yashasvi Jaiswal on 12 (8) with one four and a six. However, Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer added a crucial 43-run stand for the third wicket to take their team out of trouble. Shaw scored a quickfire 34 off 21 balls with two fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 161.90 before being dismissed as Mumbai were reduced to 74/3 in 8.3 overs.
However, Shaw’s dismissal did not affect Iyer as he continued his positive approach and smashed boundaries all around the ground at regular intervals. He slammed Yash Thakur for 19 runs in the 14th over to show his dominance in the chase along with Sarfaraz Khan.
Iyer scored 73 (44) before being dismissed by Akshay Karnewar in the sixteenth over while Sarfaraz ended his innings on 27 (19) with two fours and a six in the following over. In the end, all-rounder Shivam Dube smashed a couple of sixes to get his team home with 19 balls to spare.
Akshay Karnewar’s 2/24 and Darshan Nalkande’s 2/35 were the highlight of Vidarbha’s bowling performance.
Brief scores: Vidarbha 164/7 in 20 overs (Jitesh Sharma 46 not out; Shams Mulani 3-20) lost to Mumbai 169/4 in 16.5 overs (Shreyas Iyer 73; Akshay Karnewar 2-24) by five wickets.
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