Jharkhand end group stage unbeaten; Mumbai finish with six wins
Nitish Rana sparkled with the bat to score a 29-ball 51 as Delhi ended their SMAT 2025 campaign with a win over Uttarakhand. Rana's blitz, along with another steady half-century from Yash Dhull, took Delhi to 162. It was a score that Uttarakhand never threatened to overhaul once they lost three wickets inside the PowerPlay. Digvesh Rathi (2 for 22), Suyash Sharma (2 for 27) and Prince Yadav (2 for 32) claimed two wickets each while Navdeep Saini delivered an economical spell, giving away just 21 from his four overs.
Mangal Mahrour took 3 for 12 from his four overs as Bihar snapped their six-game losing streak with victory in their final game against Uttar Pradesh. Mahrour's burst included the wickets of Sameer Rizvi (22 off 17), Rinku Singh (19 off 25) and Aaradhya Yadav as UP managed just 144 on the board despite a late blitz from Prashant Veer (40 off 26). The chase was then setup by a steady 83-run opening stand between Piyush Singh (57 off 54) and Ayush Loharuka (36 off 36). Prince Yadav took three wickets for UP but was powerless to prevent a Bihar win, which was achieved in the last over courtesy a Bipin Saurabh blitz (26* off 16)
Yash Thakur took a four-wicket haul while Umesh Yadav and Harsh Dubey claimed a brace each as Vidarbha inflicted a 19-run defeat upon Super League-bound Andhra. After a 38-ball 50 from Aman Mokhade took Vidarbha to 154, the bowlers led by Thakur's 4 for 22 kept Andhra down. The slide was triggered by veteran Umesh, who dismissed KS Bharat with the first ball of the chase and then knocked over Shaik Rasheed in his second over. For Andhra, Satyanarayana Raju starred with the ball, claiming 4 for 26.
Keeper-bat Amit Passi smashed a 55-ball 114 as Baroda clinched a high-scoring clash against Services by 13 runs to move up to 16 points. They will need Punjab to take down Gujarat in the game later today to seal progression to the quarterfinal. Baroda held up their end of the bargain well with a dominant batting display led by Passi, who hit 10 fours and nine sixes in his knock. There were contributions through the line-up including a 12-ball 25 from captain Vishnu Solanki and a 15-ball 28* from Bhanu Pania as Baroda racked up 220 on the board. Services responded well in the chase, racing away to 84 in the 8.1 overs before the first wicket fell. In fact, their top-three of Kunwar Pathak (51 off 29), Ravi Chauhan (51 off 32) and Mohit Ahlawat (41 off 22) sparkled before a collapse through the middle-order saw them fall 13 runs short.
Jharkhand qualified to the Super League with a 7 out of 7 record following a facile 36-run win over Rajasthan in the contest between the two undefeated sides coming into today. Virat Singh struck four fours and five sixes in his 36-ball 69 and was ably complemented by fifties from Kumar Kushagra (55 off 37) and Robin Minz (58 off 27) as Jharkhand posted 215. Karan Lamba's 52 was the only noteworty contribution by a batter from Rajasthan, who finished a distant second on the day but qualified out of the group themselves.
Haryana finished top of the Group C table after recording a comfortable victory over Bengal. Asked to bat, Haryana put up a total of 191 on the board courtesy quickfire forties from Nishant Sindhu (48 off 31) and captain Ankit Kumar (46 off 30). Despite losing their way somewhat through the backend of their innings when Mohammed Shami scythed through the lower-order to take 4 for 30, they had a strong total on the board. Bengal managed to get a strong start through Abhishek Porel (47 off 24) but lack of contributions thereafter meant they fell well short. Ishant Bhardwaj took 2 for 18 from his four overs for Haryana.
Arjun Azad's 48-ball 63 and his 68-run second-wicket stand with captain Shivam Bhambri gave Chandigarh victory over Group B toppers Hyderabad. After Jagjit Singh's 3 for 36 kept Hyderabad down to 146, Chandigarh relied on their bowlers to find a crucial six in the last over bowled by Rakshan Readdi to get over the line with a ball to spare.
Sadek Hussain claimed 4 for 19 as Assam bowled Kerala out for a paltry 101. Only Rohan Kunnummal managed to pass 20 and even he took 33-balls for his 23 as Kerala endured a forgettable batting performance. There was no relief with the ball either as a steady 39-ball 41* from Pradyun Saikia took Assam over the line with seven balls to spare. Both sides finished with 12 points and an identical win-loss record.
Skipper Manisankar Murasingh's inspirational efforts saw Tripura stun Karnataka in a Super Over thriller in Ahmedabad. Murasingh picked up two wickets in Karnataka's 197/6 and then when his team was struggling at 106/6, he stepped up with the bat to launch an astonishing assault that saw him hammer 69 off just 35 as Tripura tied the contest. In the ensuing Super Over, Tripura managed to score 22 without losing a wicket and Karnataka couldn't go past it as they fell short by four runs. As a result, both Karnataka and Tripura finish the campaign with just two wins each.
Chhattisgarh finished a disappointing campaign with a solid win over Railways. Batting first, Railways' openers got them off to a blistering start but couldn't find contributors in the middle order as Chhattisgarh kept pegging them back with regular wickets. Eventually, they crawled to get bowled out for 170. Even though Chhattisgarh lost their openers cheaply, Amandeep Khare hit an unbeaten 78 to guide his team to a victory with five balls to spare.
Punjab trounced Gujarat to round off the group stage with another win despite the absence of Abhishek Sharma who left the camp for national duty. Naman Dhir stood tall again with a swashbuckling 66 as Punjab posted a strong 188 on the board. In reply, once Urvil Patel fell for a duck, Gujarat just couldn't keep up with the tempo that was needed. Five different bowlers for Punjab managed to pick up a brace each as Gujarat folded for just 113.
Maharashtra beat Goa by 15 runs in their final group game in Kolkata but still agonisingly missed out on a quarterfinal berth. With their top 5 struggling, Rahul Tripathi stepped up in a big game for Maharashtra by smashing 83* off just 44 balls to help his side finish with 161/7. In reply, only Lalit Yadav and to an extent Darshan Misal put up a fight for Goa as they comfortably fell short by 15 runs.
Ajinkya Rahane sizzled with an unbeaten 95 as Mumbai hammered Odisha by nine wickets in their final group stage encounter. Chasing 168, Rahane and Sarfaraz Khan added 74 in the powerplay before the latter got dismissed. Rahane continued to hammer the Odisha bowlers and completed the win alongside Angkrish Raghuvanshi with four overs left. Earlier in the evening, plenty of players in the Odisha lineup got off to starts but none of them could post a substantial score as they finished with a moderate total of 167/7 which was well short.
Puducherry's bowlers triggered a collapse in the second half of the chase to pick up a win over Himachal Pradesh. In pursuit of 174, HP were 111/3 at one stage but half-centurion Ekant Sen's wicket turned the game around. Puducherry then pounced on the opportunity and kept picking regular wickets to restrict their opponents to just 155/9 and register a 18-run win. Prior to that, solid contributions from all members of the top 5, led by Bhanu Anand's fifty, helped Puducherry post 173/4.
Despite losing their final game of the group phase, Madhya Pradesh held on to their second spot in the group and qualified for the quarters. In a low-scoring game, Jammu and Kashmir posted 150/9 largely thanks to Auqib Nabi's cameo at the death. Nabi then starred with the ball as well, picking up three wickets as MP's batters floundered in the run chase to fall 13 short of the target.
Tamil Nadu ended their disappointing campaign on a positive note thanks to Sai Sudharsan's terrific century in a tense run chase. Saurashtra were cruising when Vishvaraj Jadeja hammered 70 off just 39 but the next four batters registered single-digit scores. A struggling Saurashtra side were aided in the end by Sammar Gajjar who made 66 to help them breach 180. While as many as four batters in the TN top 6 were out for single-digit scores, Sudharsan kept going and was aided big time by a stunning cameo from Sunny Sandhu who made 30 off just 9 balls. After his departure, Sudharsan completed the chase with another boundary that also took him from 97* to 101*.
