The first round of Super League matches in the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) has ended. Haryana and Hyderabad from Group B and Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh from Group A have claimed wins and made progress towards making the final.
Nitish Reddy’s hat-trick goes in vain
Nitish Kumar Reddy may have been dropped from India’s T20I team, but he’s continued to work on himself. In his first SMAT match of the season against Madhya Pradesh, the all-rounder took a hat-trick. Defending just 113, Andhra needed a miracle, and Nitish nearly pulled it off.
In the 3rd over of the second innings, Nitish got the wickets of Harsh Gawali, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, and Rajat Patidar. Venkatesh Iyer fell in the 7th over, and the match got interesting, but Rishabh Chauhan and Rahul Batham helped them cross the finish line.
Jharkhand record SMAT history
One thought: Punjab has virtually blown Jharkhand away at the DY Patil Academy in Ambi. Courtesy of Salil Arora’s 45-ball 125, Punjab posted a mammoth 235 on board. Salil had come to bat at 62/3 and blasted everyone away. After him, 27 was the highest score by a Punjab batter.
But the score wasn’t enough. Jharkhand didn’t win but chased the target down with 9 balls to spare. With this, Jharkhand completed the highest successful chase in SMAT history, and the Ishan Kishan-led team hasn’t maintained their unbeaten streak.
It was a collective performance from Jharkhand’s batters. Barring Robin Minz, everyone recorded double-digit scores, with Kishan and Kumar Kushagra leading the way with 47 from 23 and 86 from 42.
Hyderabad hammer Mumbai
Despite Yashasvi Jaiswal joining the team, Mumbai batters struggled against Hyderabad. No one crossed the 30-run mark, with four of the top five getting out in single digits. Mohammed Siraj didn’t get a wicket in his opening spell in the powerplay but returned in the death to get 3 wickets in the space of 4 balls.
Chasing just 132, Hyderabad openers Aman Rao and Tanmay Agarwal made short work of the chase, scoring 68 runs in the powerplay itself. They ended up scoring 127 in 11.2 overs, with Tanmay getting out for 75 but in the same over with a boundary, Aman finished the game off.
