The Rajasthan cricket team won its third straight match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 after upstaging Hyderabad by 24 runs in Rajkot on Wednesday.
Led by Kartik Sharma’s fifty and a 97-run partnership in just 51 balls with Deepak Hooda, Rajasthan scored 187-8 in their 20 overs at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
While Kartik Sharma scored a quickfire 58 (27b, 4x4, 5x6), Deepak Hooda managed 46 runs (30b, 3x4, 3x6) after Rajasthan suffered early setbacks that left them at 26/2 in 4.3 overs.
Zubair Ali’s 31-run cameo off 20 balls, with a four and two sixes, helped Rajasthan post a competitive total. For Hyderabad, T Ravi Teja picked 2/32 in his four overs while Aniketh Reddy managed 2/42 in his quota.
In response, Hyderabad could not really get off the line in the chase as they kept losing wickets and found themselves at 108/6 in the 15th over with Aniket Choudhary (2/23 in three overs) and Manav Suthar (2/10 in two overs) doing the damage.
Hyderabad managed a 46-run stand for the seventh wicket courtesy of Tanay Thyagarajan and Prateek Reddy in 23 balls to give the chase some semblance but the target remained comprehensively out of reach. Hyderabad ended the innings at 163/8.
Rajasthan are second in the Group A points table after three matches behind Madhya Pradesh on net run rate in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the premier domestic T20 tournament in India. Rajasthan will next play Meghalaya, who are at the bottom of the standings in the group, on Friday in Rajkot.
The top team from each of the five groups, along with the best-performing second-placed team, will advance directly to the quarter-finals. The other four second-placed teams will play in two preliminary quarter-finals with the winners proceeding further to round off the last-eight stage.
The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 final will be held on December 15.
