Anmolpreet Singh and Nehal Wadhera put on a six-hitting clinic in Mohali against Baroda as Punjab scored 223/4 – the highest-ever total in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final. Anmolpreet went on to complete an incredible hundred while Wadhera smashed 61 and the pair added 138 runs off just 57 balls. Baroda fought fire with fire via Ninad Rathva (47 off 22) Abhimanyu Singh (61 off 42), Krunal Pandya (45 off 32) and Vishnu Solanki (28 off 11) and took the chase right till the end. An incredible 19th over from Arshdeep Singh however, ended their pursuit and gave Punjab their maiden SMAT title in what was their fifth appearance in the final of the tournament.
Punjab were rattled on the first ball after being asked to bat as Abhishek Sharma, their leading run-getter this season, played an uppish drive that was sharply taken by Jyotsnil Singh at short cover. Abhishek’s opening partner Prabhsimran Singh soon dragged a review back with him after feathering a ball from Atit Sheth to Vishnu Solanki behind the stumps. From 18 for 2 in the fourth over, Anmolpreet Singh and Punjab captain Mandeep Singh swiftly rebuilt the essay. Mandeep was proactive from the beginning, first taking down his opposite number – Krunal Pandya – with a four and then doubling up against Sheth with a swivel pull and straight down the ground. Despite the early setback, Punjab recovered to 44/2 by the end of the PowerPlay. The pair moved along steadily in the post-PowerPlay phase, with a 14-run 10th over from Lukman Meriwala taking them to a healthy 80/1 at the halfway stage.
However, Pandya pulled one back for his side when Mandeep went for a premeditated reverse-sweep and ended up top-edging the ball to short fine leg to fall for a 23-ball 32. But Punjab’s batting onslaught did not come to an end. Anmolpreet, who has been operating with a season strike of 190, continued to bully bowlers on his way to a 36-ball half-century. New batter Nehal Wadhera joined in on the fun as the pair hit two fours each off Abhimanyu Singh in a 19-run over. The duo added 100 for the third-wicket off just 48 balls, as Anmolpreet found the next gear as he completed a stunning 58-ball century. The incredible death-overs carnage began midway through Meriwala’s over in the 17th when Anmolpreet carted three successive sixes. There were six more of those and three fours to come in the last three overs as Punjab amassed 75 runs off the last 21 balls. Anmolpreet, who hit 10 fours and six sixes, finished unbeaten on 113 while Wadhera got 61 off 27, with six fours and four sixes.
Baroda’s hopes of a flying start to keep up with the steep asking rate were thwarted early by the tournament veteran Sidharth Kaul, as he had Jyotsnil Singh caught behind in the second over. One-drop batter Ninad Rathva then took over to put Baroda back on track. He started by going after Kaul with three fours in the fourth over before smashing Abhishek for a six and a four. In the final over of the PowerPlay, he lofted Baltej Singh for one six and two fours to take Baroda to 64/1. All this while, opener Abhimanyu Singh watched on from the other end at 6 off 9. Rathva threatened to dwarf the target in front of them but Mayank Markande arrived to put a lid on his run-making as he had the batter out stumped for 47 off 22 balls.
Abhimanyu began to speed up in the company of his captain Krunal as they dragged the team to 89/2 in 10 overs. The pair then went about raising the run rate by throwing their bats around wildly and finding success. The carnage began with a Krunal six over long off against Harpreet Brar in the 12th over while Abhimanyu carted one against Baltej in the 13th. Both overs fetched 11 runs each, before Markande was taken for 21 runs in the 14th over where Abhimanyu hit a hattrick of sixes to bring up his 36-ball half-century. That took Baroda to 10-an-over with 139/2 in 14, and yet they were staring at a daunting equation – 84 off 36 balls. Abhimanyu and Pandya cranked up the pressure by taking that down to 64 off 24 but the former fell for a 42-ball 61 in Arshdeep Singh’s over.
It came down to 58 off 18 – two more than what Punjab got in the last three overs. Vishnu Solanki turned the game on its head once again as he saw through Siddarth Kaul’s change of pace and lengths to smash him all around the ground for 24 runs in the over. But up stepped Arshdeep Singh to extinguish Baroda’s hopes for good with excellent lengths. First Krunal got a short ball that he couldn’t pull beyond long on where Anmolpreet took a sharp catch. Shivalik Sharma got a short ball that he attempted to hit over the same area and failed too, with Anmolpreet taking an even better diving catch. Bhanu Pania then sliced a low full-toss outside off to the third man fielder. Arshdeep conceded just four runs in his triple-wicket over, leaving Baroda to get 29 off 6 balls. Brar dismissed Solanki and gave away just runs to pave the way for Punjab to clinch the title.
Brief Scores: Punjab 223/4 in 20 overs (Anmolpreet Singh 113, Nehal Wadhera 61*; Krunal Pandya 1-30) beat Baroda 203/7 in 20 overs (Abhimanyu Singh 61, Ninad Rathva 47, Krunal Pandya 45, Vishnu Solanki 32; Arshdeep Singh 4-23) by 20 runs
