On December 15 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh will clash against each other for the SMAT title
A cracking finale awaits this Sunday i.e., December 15 as Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh gears up to battle against each other for the coveted Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. For Madhya Pradesh, it will be all about winning its maiden SMAT title, whereas for Mumbai, it will be about getting close to Tamil Nadu, a team with three titles—the maximum in the tourney’s history.
While expectations will be high from all the players of both camps, our eyes will be glued on these five players, who we believe will steal the Sunday show with their willows.
The spectators went “RCB, RCB” when their hero Rajat Patidar turned the tides for Madhya Pradesh against Delhi in the semi-final two. Coming to bat when Pradesh was down 46/3, Patidar blasted boundaries from every corner of the stadium, scoring 66 runs off 29 balls to send Madhya Pradesh to their first final since 2010/11. Patidar is also the tournament’s third-highest run-getter with 347 runs and will get to second place given that Bihar is out and so is Sakibul Gani.
Ajinkya Rahane has been making headlines since he was acquired by IPL’s KKR and is expected to be their captain next season. He has also been making headlines consistently in the SMAT due to his performances, especially the recent 98-run knock in 56 balls that helped Mumbai defeat Baroda to reach the SMAT finale. Rahane is also presently the top scorer of the tourney with 432 runs in eight matches.
Shreyas Iyer may have been left by KKR despite winning the IPL last season, but his bat has not stopped performing. He is proving his worth of INR 26.75 crore that Punjab Kings have paid for him for IPL 2025 even though the IPL and SMAT are two different tourneys. Iyer also had a cracking show against Baroda with a strong 46-run knock, whereas so far in the tournament, Iyer has scored 329 runs in eight games.
Harpreet Singh Bhati may not have done enough to be a star man in his three IPL seasons. However, for Madhya Pradesh, Singh has scored 282 runs in nine games this season and is one of the crucial cogs because of which Pradesh has reached the final. In fact, a lot will ride on Singh’s shoulder on Sunday, and he must fire his guns to increase Pradesh’s winning chances.
Madhya Pradesh will also rely heavily on Venkatesh Iyer, given his prowess with both the bat and the ball. In nine games, Iyer has scored 210 runs with a strike rate of over 160, whereas with the ball, he regularly takes wickets, for example, 2 for 13 against Delhi, two against Saurashtra, and so on.
While our hopes remain on these players, we will only know the individual and team results on Sunday evening. Catch the live action from 4:30 p.m. onwards on the Sports 18 Network channel and the JioCinema app or website.
