Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019-20: Final, Karnataka vs Tamil Nadu – Karnataka's title defence, Manish Pandey’s captain knock and more stats

Karnataka were successful in defending the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy following a thrilling 1-run win in the final against Tamil Nadu. The formidable top 3 of Karnataka failed to score big runs as they collectively scored only 54 runs. However, skipper Manish Pandey took the responsibility with an unbeaten 45-ball 60 to push Karnataka to 180/5. Tamil Nadu lost their top four in 10 overs with only 80 runs on the board.

However, Baba Aparajith (40) and Vijay Shankar (44) added 71 runs in only 7.1 overs for the 5th wicket. A couple of fours from Ravi Ashwin to start the 20th over brought down the equation to 5 runs from 4 balls. Krishnappa Gowtham held his nerves at the position to seal a 1-run win for this team.

All the statistical highlights from the thrilling T20 final between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in Surat:

1 – Karnataka became the first team to win both the limited-overs competitions – Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the same season. Interestingly, Tamil Nadu were the opponents in the final of both the tournaments in this season.

1 – Karnataka is also the first team to defend the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy title having won the 2018/19 edition as well. They are now only the 3rd team to win this tournament twice after Baroda (2011/12 & 2013/14) and Gujarat (2012/13 & 2014/15).

2 – Manish Pandey became only the 2nd player to win the SMA T20 Trophy twice as captain having led them in the 2018/19 season as well. Manoj Tiwary was the skipper of Bengal when they won the 2010/11 edition and led East Zone that won the 2016/17 season.

2 – Karnataka is only the 2nd side to by an SMA T20 final by a 1-run margin. Bengal won the 2010/11 season finale by 1 run against Madhya Pradesh. Overall, only five times a team won a T20 final by as few as one run.

The Zimbabwe Domestic T20 final in the 2010/11 season was won by the Eagles against Rhinos by one run while Mumbai Indians defeated Rising Pune Supergiant and Chennai Super Kings by one-run margins in the IPL 2017 final and IPL 2019 final respectively.

20 – Manish Pandey has won 20 out of 21 Twenty20 matches in 2019 as captain; the joint 2nd most T20 wins for an Indian captain in a calendar year. Gautam Gambhir has won 21 of the 27 T20s in the year 2014 while MS Dhoni also led his teams to 20 wins in 2016 but was captain in 35 matches.

Overall, George Bailey (24 wins out of 36 T20s in 2014) and Sarfaraz Ahmed (22 of 30 matches in 2018) are the only other captains to have won more than 20 Twenty20s in a calendar year.

60* – Manish Pandey became the first captain to score a fifty in the final of Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy. The previous highest score by a skipper in the SMA T20 final was 47* by Suresh Raina for Uttar Pradesh against Baroda in the 2015/16 edition final.

163/7 – The highest total in a Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy final before this season is 163/7 by Uttar Pradesh against Baroda in the 2015/16 edition. Karnataka broke the record by scoring 180 while Tamil Nadu also surpassed that total by finishing on 179.