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That's all from us then. This is Soumarya Dutta signing off on behalf of Pradeep. See you soon!
Right then, Punjab have clinched the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2023 and in the process they've finally settled the scores with Baroda for the bitter defeat that they had a decade earlier in 2012. Incidentally one player from that final featured in this one and it was the Punjab skipper Mandeep Singh. This time though luck favored him and he finishes on the other side where the grass has always looked greener.
Mandeep Singh, Punjab Captain - " It's a dream come true for us and I am really proud of the boys. Special thanks to the association who introduced the intra state tournament which helped a lot of the guys to get accustomed to playing under pressure. Credit to our coach as well who has been our support system. The dropped catches in the field wasn't really ideal but it had to do a lot with the dew which makes it really difficult in the second innings."
Abhishek Sharma, Player of the Series - "I'm really happy with the performances and especially the team effort. It has been a dream come true for us. We have a great bunch of boys who have played together for the last few overs and I felt it was high time that we showed our abilities and won a BCCI trophy. "
No prices for guessing who's the Player of the Match, it's Anmolpreet Singh! Here's what he has to say: Was always backing myself to do well, it was dry at the start, but the ball came on nicely. After we lost eary wickets, we had to play the situation and then backed myself to bat through and then did well towards the end.
Krunal Pandya (Baroda captain): Proud of the boys how they turned up in the second innings, we didn't give up and shows the entire tournament we played the way we did today, it's just that in the final, the result didn't go our way. Yes 100%, it's a massive difference between chasing 200 and 224, it's an extra pressure when you are chasing such a big total, as a batter you have to go from ball and as a batter, you can take a couple of balls and go for it later, would've been different if we had restricted them in the end. We are just a young team, learning and many of them are 23-24's, eventually the goal is to win the BCCI trophy.
Unbelievable scenes here at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali as Punjab have emerged triumphant in front of a home crowd to clinch the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2023. It was a run feast in the final but they successfully negated the dew factor and managed to subdue the Baroda side by a healthy margin of 20 runs in the end. Baroda fought hard and stayed in the game right till the very end but Punjab prevailed courtesy of their teamwork and unwavering resilience.
Baroda didn't really get off to the best of starts as Jyotsnil fell early on but it was Rathva who set up the run chase with a dazzling display of strokeplay. He attacked the bowlers in the powerplay and showed remarkble hitting prowess. However once he was gone Baroda fell behind the run rate as the Punjab spinners put a stranglehold on the scoring.
Krunal Pandya and Abhimanyusingh Rajput fought back from this stage of the game as they counter attacked under pressure to take the momentum in their favor. Rajput hammered three sixes in one over to get to his 50 while skipper Pandya gave him good company. He was extremely fortunate to be dropped four times but couldn't quite make use of it in the end.
The game was getting too close for Punjab's comfort when Arshdeep Singh came back into the attack and seized the initiative. The left arm seamer picked up three wickets in an incredible 19th over which knocked Baroda out of the contest. Punjab did drop of a lot of catches in the field but towards the end, they redeemed themselves as they held on to a few crucial ones. Markande was impressive too as he picked up a wicket and gave away only 29 runs. Baltej and Siddharth Kaul were expensive though and had to bear the brunt of the onslaught from the Baroda batters.
PUNJAB HAVE WON THE SYED MUSHTAQ ALI TROPHY 2023 by 20 runs.
20
overs
203/7score
0
2
W
6
0
0
runs
Dhruv Patel*
6(3)
Atit Sheth
0(1)
Harpreet Brar
1/35
19.6 Harpreet Brar to Dhruv Patel, MAIDEN SMAT TITLE FOR PUNJAB! Harpreet Brar holds on to his nerve, bowls a sensational final over and Punjab for the first time wins the SMA trophy, what a moment this for them and it's absolute scenes in the middle here. Brar nails the yorker on the leg-stump, Dhruv couldn't do much about it and digs it out.
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Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Dhruv Patel
*
Harpreet Brar
Video
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