SMAT 2025-26: Hyderabad puts one foot in final; MP loses a thriller against Jharkhand

Hyderabad put one foot in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as it maintained its dominance by pulling off a convincing six-wicket win against Rajasthan to move to the top of the points table with two successive victories in the Super League stage.

With Hyderabad’s juggernaut rolling on, defending champion Mumbai finds itself on the verge of elimination. The domestic giant now not only needs to defeat Rajasthan by a significant margin on Tuesday to improve its Net Run Rate, but also hope for other results to go in its favour.

After Yashasvi Jaiswal’s century made the morning for the hundreds of spectators who thronged the DY Patil Academy ground, far away from Pune’s city centre, Hyderabad batters Tanmay Agarwal (41-ball-73) and Buddhi Rahul (55 off 36) turned the afternoon into a memorable one as they chased down Rajasthan’s 178 for 9 without breaking a sweat.

After winning the toss, Hyderabad unleashed its in-form bowlers, and with C.V. Milind and Tanay Thyagarajan claiming three wickets each, Hyderabad jolted Rajasthan’s top-order to leave it reeling at 19 for 3 at one point in time.

As it lost wickets in clusters, none of the batters except Mahipal Lomror could put up a fight. It was a slow innings by the seasoned Lomror, who was disappointed to fall two runs short of his fifty. With Rajasthan already under pressure, Mohammed Siraj added to its woes by picking up two wickets in his second spell and cleaning up the tail.

Rajasthan captain Manav Suthar —who looked clueless — used six bowlers, but none except for Kamlesh Nagarkoti could find early breakthroughs as Agarwal took up from where he left off in the last game against Mumbai.

Despite losing Aman Rao and Pragnay Reddy early on, a calm and composed Agarwal seemed to be in no hurry as he went on to score a 41-ball-73, while Rahul’s 55 off 36 meant they could add 95 runs for the third wicket to set the tone for the team’s victory. With national selectors Pragyan Ojha and Ajay Ratra in attendance, Agarwal continued his dream run with another sublime performance.

ALSO READ: Jaiswal, Sarfaraz help Mumbai sink Haryana; Andhra knocks Punjab out

There was high drama in the other game of the day, as Madhya Pradesh choked and suffered a one-run defeat against Jharkhand, despite dominating the game throughout. After Venkatesh Iyer’s three-wicket haul restricted Jharkhand to 181 for nine despite Ishan Kishan’s 63, Madhya Pradesh batters Harpreet Singh Bhatia and Harsh Gawali scored fifties and stitched a 122-run partnership for the second wicket to set the tone.

With the dew setting in at the MCA Stadium, Madhya Pradesh kept things under control until the 14th over, but slowly, runs dried up and as the pressure mounted, Gawali was sent packing by Balkrishna, and things went downhill thereafter. Despite the presence of Bhatia and captain Rajat Patidar, things got messy as Madhya Pradesh was left needing 12 runs from the final over, bowled by Sushant Mishra.

Patidar started off with a four through the fine leg, before being caught by Pankaj Kumar. Neither Bhatia nor Aniket Verma could find the gaps, leading to MP needing three runs off the last ball. As a tense MP dugout hoped for a miracle, a mix-up saw Verma being run out to deal a blow to MP’s hopes of reaching the final. Jharkhand, meanwhile, pulled off its second win on the trot to inch closer to booking a berth in the summit clash.

Published on Dec 14, 2025