Venkatesh Iyer to miss remainder of SMAT 2022

Madhya Pradesh all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer has been ruled out of the Syed Mushtaq Ali 2022 season with a broken ankle and will miss the remainder of the tournament. The left-hander came up with a brilliant performance in the first game against Railways in Rajkot and was expected to continue on his excellent form. He scored an unbeaten 62 off 31 balls in the middle-order to set up a competitive total and turned up with six wickets for just 20 runs with the ball to complete a match-winning performance.

Iyer had a stellar season with the bat for the Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2021 which earned him a place in the Indian squad after the T20 World Cup 2021. He played nine T20Is and two ODIs but failed to impress the management largely. Also, Hardik Pandya’s dramatic comeback in IPL and international cricket this year meant that Iyer lost his way in the scheme of things in international cricket.

The 27-year-old needed to stack up his performances in the ongoing domestic season to be back in the mix for international call-up again. In the four games he played in the Syed Mushtaq Ali 2022 season, Iyer scored two fifties and aggregated 189 runs at an impressive strike rate of 161.53 until he broke his ankle.

Madhya Pradesh ease past Mizoram in previous encounter

Madhya Pradesh meanwhile is currently in the fourth position with three wins in five games in Group A. They are coming off a big win in their previous game against Mizoram who scored just 94 in their 20 overs at the loss of six wickets. The Parth-Sahani-led side managed to win the game before the 13th over to boost their net run rate massively.

In the ongoing game between Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha on Thursday, Jitesh Sharma’s blistering half-century off just 21 balls helped the Vidarbha side post a big total of 180 on the board in the first innings.