Kumar Kartikeya extended his stellar form with the ball in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 as he registered a Player of the Match-winning 3/25 to help Madhya Pradesh beat Hyderabad by seven runs in Rajkot on Tuesday.
The versatile left-arm spinner dismissed Tanmay Agarwal, Rahul Buddhi and Mickil Jaiswal to break the back of Hyderabad’s batting line-up and helped his team successfully defend 178 in the closely-contested match.
Madhya Pradesh’s 178/8 came on the back of Harsh Gawli’s 51, whose 92-run stand with fellow opener Subhranshu Senapati laid the foundation for the total. Ajay Dev Goud and Milind took three wickets each.
In response, Hyderabad managed 171/9 in their 20 overs with Tanmay Agarwal top-scoring for his side with 47. Kamal Tripathi also took three wickets for MP.
It was the Madhya Pradesh’s cricket team’s fifth win in six matches in the SMAT 2024 Group A and edged them closer to securing a spot in the quarter-finals. Kartikeya’s magic with the ball has been a big contributor to the run.
Kumar Kartikeya, who was signed by Rajasthan Royals at the IPL 2025 auction, is currently the highest wicket-taker in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 with 13 scalps from six matches.
Tuesday’s haul was also Kumar Kartikeya’s third three-fer in the ongoing T20 cricket tournament. The 26-year-old also picked up a Player of the Match-winning 3/32 against reigning champions Punjab and registered 3/36 in a losing cause against Rajasthan on Sunday.
His run of form also puts Kartikeya in touching distance of the record for the most wickets in a single edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, which is India’s premier domestic T20 tournament.
Baroda’s Lukman Iqbal Meriwala, who scalped 21 wickets in 2014, currently holds the record.
Kartikeya was also a key figure in helping MP win their maiden Ranji Trophy title in the 2021-22 season and his haul of 32 wickets in that edition was the second-highest by any bowler. He has also registered over 30 wickets in the subsequent two Ranji seasons and already has 24 in five matches in the ongoing season.
The Uttar Pradesh-born bowler has also picked up 10 IPL wickets in 12 matches for Mumbai Indians before joining the Royals. His career best T20 bowling figures are 3/10.
