Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2018: Punjab grab a memorable win in the Super Over

We witnessed another crackerjack of an encounter between Punjab and Karnataka, and one will have to say that the latter had too much firepower and managed to upstage the opposition in a match that went all down to the wire. The 20 overs in the Super League Stage match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy couldn’t separate the two quality sides and in the end, the match went all down to the Super Over.

In the first of Super League Stage match, it was Punjab skipper Harbhajan Singh who won the toss and asked the opposition to bat first. With his experience of over 20 years in the cricketing arena, Harbhajan could well assess the conditions and knew that wicket will remain the same for forty odd overs. With this, Karnataka’s in-form openers Mayank Agarwal and swashbuckler Karun Nair took guard to start the proceedings. However, the duo couldn’t provide the flying start which put Punjab on top.

158- The Number of Today

To start the innings with force, Mayank went on to play an expansive short and had to pay the price. He departed for mere 6 runs after facing 5 deliveries. His departure brought Krishnappa Gowtham to the crease. He along with Nair tried to build a partnership but their intentions couldn’t be converted into reality as Gowtham was out for 13 runs giving Manpreet Singh Grewal his second wicket.

Wickets kept tumbling for Karnataka however, their middle-order batsman Anirudhha had some other plans as he hammered the opposition bowlers all around the park. The power-hitter helped his team reach a respectable total of 158 runs, giving their bowlers something to defend. Aniruddha made 40 runs off just 19 balls at an astonishing strike-rate of 210.53 and the innings was laced with six boundaries and a six.

Karnataka needed their bowlers to step up and get rid of Punjab’s openers soon. M Prasidh helped them to do exactly that as in-form batsman Manan Vohra was on his way back for one short of the double-figure mark. Little did they know that Punjab will tinker with their batting order and ask their captain to go at number three.

Harbhajan forged their bowlers all around the park and made 33 runs off just 19 balls. Yuvraj Singh and Mandeep Singh then led Punjab to be in a comfortable position before Karnataka’s bowlers charged up and restricted the opposition to the same score which eventually helped Karnataka take the contest into the super over.

Super-Over

As per the rules, Punjab were asked to play first and they posted 15 runs in one over. Mandeep and Yuvraj played at a strike-rate of 250. And thus, Karnataka needed 16 runs to get those all-important four points. In response, Karun Nair and Aniruddha tried their level best but Sidhharth Kaul restricted them to just 11.

Brief scores:

Karnataka – 158/7 (20) Aniruddha – 40*(19), Baltej Singh – 3/21
Punjab – 158/9 (20) Mandeep Singh – 45(29), Arvind Sreenath – 4/32

Super over:

Punjab – 15/0 (1) Mandeep Singh – 10*(4)
Karnataka – 11/1 (1) Karun Nair – 8(5)

Punjab won the game