SMAT Review: Top Stats of the season

A thrilling domestic T20 season marked its end as Tamil Nadu successfully defended their SMAT title with a last-ball win against Karnataka. Shahrukh Khan won the 'Player of the Match' for his quickfire 33* (15).

We take you through a few noteworthy stats from the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy this season.

Team Stats

Vidarbha posted 222/4 against Manipur, which is the highest total in this edition of the SMAT. They were also the only team to post a total in excess of 200 twice in the season.

Vidarbha also registered the largest victory by runs in the same game, defeating Manipur by 167 runs. They posted three out of the four biggest wins by runs margin this season. 

As for the wickets margin, both Meghalaya and Sikkim registered ten-wicket wins against Tripura and Mizoram respectively. Madhya Pradesh posted the largest win with regards to balls remaining, winning by 14.2 overs to spare against Bihar.

Both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka registered seven victories in the season with the latter playing an extra game in the form of pre-quarters.

Jharkhand conceded 18 extras against Haryana, which is the most extras conceded in an innings.

Most Runs

Tanmay Agarwal ended up the leading run-scorer in this SMAT edition, scoring 334 runs in seven innings at an average of 55.6 and a strike rate of 148.44. This is also the second-highest aggregate by a Hyderabad player in a season. Tirumalasetti Suman scored 361 in nine innings in the year 2014-2015. 

He was followed by Deepak Hooda with a tally of 294 runs which includes four half-centuries. His strike rate of 168 was the second-best amongst batters with more than 200 runs. Ajinkya Rahane also rose to the occasion with 286 runs despite Mumbai having a poor SMAT season. Ashwin Hebbar scored 279 runs from five innings at a scintillating average of 93.

Most Wickets

In this edition of the SMAT, Chama Milind was the leading wicket-taker with 18 wickets in seven innings at an average of 11.61 which is quite decent. The left-arm medium pacer scalped 5/8 in a league match against UP, the best bowling figure by a Hyderabad player in the history of SMAT. 

Cheepurapalli Stephen and Rishi Dhawan both picked 14 wickets each. The likes of Akshay Karnewar, Darshan Nalkande and Jaydev Unadkat finished with a tally of 13 wickets.

Highest Scores

A total of four centuries were hit in this year's SMAT. Prabhsimran Singh's knock of 119 runs from 61 balls against Goa was the highest individual score. Manan Vohra, Ashwin Hebbar and Yash Nahar were the other centurions. 

Most Sixes

Jitesh Sharma smashed 19 sixes in this season, which is the most by any player. His strike rate of 235.2 is also the best among all the players with a minimum of 100 runs. Jitesh Sharma's unbeaten knock of 28* (7) at a strike rate of 400 was the fourth-highest by a player in the history of SMAT. The Vidarbha player scored 214 runs at an average of 53.5 in seven innings. 

Deepak Hooda was next in the fray with 17 sixes in his kitty. Manan Vohra and Sheldon Jackson hit 13 maximums while Nitish Rana, Tanmay Agarwal and Tilak Varma smashed 12 sixes in the tournament.

Best bowling figures

There were a total of eight five-wicket hauls in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Rishi Dhawan's 6/23 for Himachal Pradesh against Jammu and Kashmir were the best bowling figures in the tournament.

Chama Milind went on to pick two fifers, 5-28 against Uttar Pradesh and 5-16 against Uttarakhand. Darshan Nalkande, Shubham Agarwal, Pankaj Jaiswal, Shivank Vashisht and Saravana Kumar were the others to pick a five-wicket haul this season.

Other highlights

Apoorv Wankhede has an average of 158, which is the best among all the players with a minimum of 100 runs.

Atharwa Taide has conceded at an economy rate of 2.7, which is the best among players with a minimum of five wickets.

Akshay Karnewar bowled four maiden overs in the game against Manipur. His figures read 4-4-0-2. 

Prithvi Shaw and Ajinkya Rahane stitched an opening partnership of 151 runs, the highest stand for any wicket in this edition. 

KV Sasikanth took nine catches which was the highest in the tournament. Manish Pandey was a close-second with eight catches to his name.

Delhi wicketkeeper Anuj Rawat had a total of 10 dismissals in five matches which was the highest this season.

Vishnu Vinod hit seven sixes in the semifinal game against Tamil Nadu, which was the most number of maximums in an innings.