Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy reached its knockout stage as Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. UP reached the pre-quarters after finishing second to Delhi in Group C, with five wins and two losses.
Meanwhile, Andhra finished second in Group E, only behind Mumbai. They racked up four wins from six matches in the group stage.
See how things panned out in the pre-quarterfinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
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Mohammed Shami's all-round performance guides Bengal to quarter-finals
Bengal managed to barely squeeze out a win by 3 runs against Chandigarh in the pre-quarterfinal match at Bengaluru, courtesy of an all-round performance from Mohammed Shami.
Batting first, Bengal posted 159/9, thanks to a late blitz of 32 runs off 17 balls from the Indian pacer, who backed it up with a 1/25 in the second innings.
Bengal's Sayan Ghosh finished with figures of 4/30 as Chandigarh managed to score 156/9, falling short by a small margin.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar guides Uttar Pradesh to quarterfinals with top bowling performance
After being asked to bat first by UP, Andhra scored 156/6 in their 20 overs. After a slow start, Durga Nagavaraprasad scored an unbeaten 22-ball 34 to guide his team to a respectable total.
The opposition bowlers cut through Andhra's top-order, bringing them down to just 38/3 inside 7 overs. Bhuvi and Vipraj Nigam starred for UP, bagging two wickets each.
In response, Rinku Singh remained unbeaten for Uttar Pradesh, scoring a 22-ball 28 towards the end. However, all the damage was already done up-top, with Karan Sharma's 31-ball 48. The opener hit five boundaries and three sixes to make it a one-sided run-chase.
Kodavandla Sudharsian's heroics with the ball could not sway the game in Andhra's favour. He even bowled a maiden-over in his 3/22 in four overs. Sudharsian was ably supported by Tripurana Vijay, who bagged two wickets and conceded only 21 runs from his four-over quota.
UP will now face Delhi in their quarter-final game of the SMAT 2024. The fixture is scheduled for Wednesday, December 11. The proceedings will kickstart from the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru at 16:30 hours (IST).
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