SMAT: Rinku, Nitish fail as young Delhi beat star-studded UP to reach semis

A star-studded Uttar Pradesh side which had the likes of Rinku Singh, Nitish Rana, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shivam Mavi and Sameer Rizvi in it, failed to go past a young bunch of enthusiasts from Delhi. 

Led by Ayush Badoni, Delhi beat the UP side in the quarterfinal encounter of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2024 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on December 11. 

As a result of this loss, UP were knocked out while Delhi moved to the semis where they will meet Madhya Pradesh on December 13th.

Delhi enter semis 🙌

They bowl Uttar Pradesh out for 174, defending 193, & win by 19 runs 👏#SMAT | @IDFCFIRSTBank

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/0WBG2Euzov pic.twitter.com/NCNPqRUGde

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) December 11, 2024

UP skipper Bhuvneshwar won the toss and decided to field first. However, a blistering 73 not out off just 33 balls from Anuj Rawat, who was batting at number four, saw Delhi capitalise on the starts by Priyansh Arya (44), Yash Dhull (42) and skipper Badoni (25) to post 193/3 in their 20 overs. 

A daunting task as such was made more difficult for the UP team as their star batters Rinku (10) and Nitish (2) failed miserably. Priyam Garg tried his best with a 34-ball 54. However, the partnership of 35 runs, the biggest in the UP innings, between him and Sameer Rizvi (25) was broken by Simarjeet Singh. 

That proved to be the writing on the wall as, despite Bhuvneshwar’s 13-ball 20 and Mohsin Khan’s 11-ball 18 not out, UP fell short by 19 runs in the end.

Photo Credit: BCCI Domestic Screengrab

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