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The 2021 season of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India's domestic T20 competition, is underway. The tournament sees teams divided in five 'elite' groups and the plate group.
Group E has Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Saurashtra, Hyderabad and Uttarakhand.
In the first round of matches, Delhi beat Uttarakhand by 35 runs while Uttar Pradesh beat Chandigarh by 22 runs. Hyderabad edged Saurashtra in a thriller, winning by two wickets.
Delhi are on top of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Group E table with the best Net Run Rate, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Hyderabad.
Delhi were restricted to 121/8 in Rohtak by Uttarakhand, but put on a brilliant bowling display to bowl out their opponents for 86. Spinner Shivank Vashisht took five wickets.
Uttar Pradesh scored 165/4 in Sultanpur, spurred by half-centuries from captain Karan Sharma and Rinku Singh. In return, Chandigarh could only get to 143/5. Seamers Shivam Mavi and Ankit Rajpoot took two wickets apiece.
Hyderabad then edged Saurashtra in a high-scoring thriller. Saurashtra, powered by half-centuries from Prerak Mankad and captain Jaydev Unadkat, scored 173/8.
A half-century from Tanmay Agarwal and some handy contributions from the rest saw them chase the total down with three deliveries to spare. The first round of matches from Elite Group E of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy produced some good bowling displays.
Here are the top three bowling displays from Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Group E today:
#1 Shivank Vashisht (5/19)
Off-spinner Shivank Vashisht put in a special display to defend Delhi's total of 121/8 in their first match of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021. He picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in T20s.
Vashisht had two two-wicket overs and had Uttarakhand's top-scorer Dikshanshu Negi stumped in his final over to help Delhi bowl their opponents out for 86. Vashisht picked up his first two wickets off his first two deliveries, dismissing wicketkeeper Saurabh Rawat and Vijay Jethi in the 11th over.
Then, in the 15th over, he again rocked Uttarakhand as he dismissed Swapnil Singh and Mayank Mayank Mishra to end their resistance. He then got Negi's wicket in the 17th over and from there on in, it was a matter of formality for Delhi to win the match.
#2 Mayank Mishra (3/11)
Before Shivank Vashisht's five-wicket haul, Mayank Mishra bowled a beautiful spell to help restrict Delhi to 121 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Mishra picked three wickets for just 11 runs in an economical spell that helped build pressure on Delhi.
Mishra ran through Delhi's middle order, getting the scalps of Kshitiz Sharma, Lalit Yadav and Vashisht. He was supported by Nikhil Kohli and Akash Madhval, who picked up three and two wickets respectively. However, Kohli and Madhval gave away a handful of runs as well. The choke applied by Mayank and Swapnil Singh (0/14) complemented the pacers perfectly to help restrict Delhi to a low total. Unfortunately, it was not enough for Uttarakhand to chase.
#3 Hanuma Vihari (2/16)
In a high-scoring match, Hanuma Vihari's spell of 2/16 could have proved to be the difference. Hyderabad chased down the 174-run target set for them by Saurashtra in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with just two wickets and three deliveries to spare.
Vihari got the wickets of key Saurashtra players Arpit Vasavada and Chirag Jani off consecutive deliveries to leave them reeling. A late assault from Jaydev Unadkat helped them score 173/8.
Mohammed Siraj and Chama Milind took three wickets each for Hyderabad as well, but they gave away 38 and 48 runs respectively. Vihari also scored 26 off 16 to give them a good start to their chase and get their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign off to a winning start.
