SMAT: Ayush Mhatre continues sizzling form, plays match-winning knock as Mumbai defeat Chhattisgarh by 8 wickets

Ayush Mhatre and Shardul Thakur proved to be the star performers as Mumbai defeated Chhattisgarh by 8 wickets in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The side led by Shardul gave a brilliant all-round performance as they continued their superb form in the tournament. After bundling out Chhattisgarh for a small total, the Mumbai team performed brilliantly with the bat as well to ensure a comfortable victory.

After winning the toss and being invited to bat first, Chhattisgarh had a poor start and lost opener Amit Yadav cheaply for six runs as Shardul got his first scalp of the day in the third over. Just two deliveries later, the pacer would go on to get rid of Amandeep Khare for a two-ball duck. The wickets just wouldn't stop falling for Chhattisgarh and they would lose two more batters in the next two overs.

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Even after the powerplay, the Chhattisgarh batters would fail to score freely and would  be restricted to 59/7 by the eight over  as both Tushar Deshpande and Shams Mulani also opened their wicket accounts for the day. If it wasn't for the cameos from Shubham Agarwal (19) and Mayank Yadav (24), they would  have struggled to even get to the 100-run mark. They would eventually be bowled out for just 121 runs as Thakur starred with three scalps while the likes of Tushar Deshpande, Atharva  Ankolekar and Suryansh Shegde chipped in with two scalps each.

Mhatre and Rahane's brilliant opening stand

In reply, Mumbai started their innings on a strong note as the duo of Mhatre and Ajinkya Rahane smacked the opposing bowlers all around the stadium. Though the duo didn't bat in explosive fashion, they kept the scoreboard ticking and scored atleast one boundary in an over. Both of them looked set to score fifties, however Rahane fell just a  little short and got dismissed for 40 runs.

Mhatre steers Mumbai to comfortable win

Though Mumbai also lost Siddhesh Lad cheaply for five runs, Mhatre's unbeaten inning of 69 was enough to steer them to a convincing victory with 25 deliveries left to spare. This result saw Mumbai remain at the top of Elite Group A  with 20 points from six games. On the other hand, Chhattisgarh are down at the bottom of the group with just a single win under their  name from six games.