Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021: Day 3 – Record chase, Hat-trick and much more

The Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy 2020-21 stood host for a couple of close matches on Tuesday when three matches each of three groups were played. Kedar Jadhav was the hero for Maharashtra in their last-ball win against Chhattisgarh while Siddarth Kaul struck with the ball against Karnataka with a hat-trick for Punjab. The star-studded Uttar Pradesh team had yet another disappointment as they lost against the Railways despite a good all-round performance from Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Here are all the major statistical highlights from the nine matches played on Tuesday in SMAT 2020-21:

– Tamil Nadu registered their first-ever win by a margin of 10 wickets in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy as they chased down the target of 127 runs against Assam in only 15 overs without losing a wicket.

– Siddarth Kaul is now the first player to claim multiple hat-tricks in professional cricket for Punjab. He completed a hat-trick in the match against Karnataka on Tuesday and had a hat-trick to his name during the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy match against Andhra. Kaul is one of the three players with a hat-trick in first-class cricket for Punjab last year and is also only the 3rd player with a T20 hat-trick for them.

– Siddarth Kaul became the first player to bag three 4-wicket hauls for Punjab in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Only four players have more than three 4-fers in the history of the SMA T20 Trophy thus far. Kaul took 4/14 against Himachal Pradesh in 2013 and 4/19 against Railways in 2019.

– As many as six batters in Tripura’s innings were dismissed ‘bowled’ during their match against Jammu & Kashmir. It is only the 2nd such instance in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy as six Jharkhand batters got bowled during the 2014-15 season game against Odisha.

– Maharashtra became only the 3rd team in the history of Twenty20 cricket to complete a chase on the last ball of the match despite losing only two or fewer wickets. No team before Maharashtra in the SMA T20 Trophy has reached the target on the last ball of a game despite losing less than four wickets.