SMAT 2021 Final: All hail King Khan as Tamil Nadu defeat Karnataka in a thrilling last ball finish

Karnataka’s pacer Prateek Jain was shattered when Tamil Nadu’s Shahrukh Khan pulled off something incredible in Delhi on Monday, 22 November. Needing 5 off the last ball, the aggressive right-hander connected a length ball with all authority and deposited it over square leg boundary for a maximum to seal the win for his side by 4 wickets. 

Tamil Nadu are the champions of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021. 

After some good work from the spinners early on in the game, Tamil Nadu were handed a target of 152 runs in 20 overs by Karnataka and the kind of batting line up that they have in the unit, it seemed to be an easy task initially. 

Only, it wasn’t. 

The Tamil Nadu batting didn’t go all guns blazing in the first phase of the chase and they could only manage to gather 60 in the first 10 overs. Captain Vijay Shankar who had come in at number four and joined N Jagadeesan in the middle, after TN lost its aggressive opener C Hari Nishant (23 off 12) and one down Sai Sudarshan (9 off 12) inside eight overs.

The two batters put up a stand of 44 runs for the third wicket but the ever increasing asking run rate forced Shankar to play one in the air. 

The stroke didn’t bring much for the Tamil Nadu team and instead, it cost the skipper’s wicket when the team score read 95. Shankar was caught by Suchith off Cariappa for a 22-ball 18. 

The right-hander’s departure was then followed by Jagadeesan’s dismissal on the very next delivery after he was out in the same manner for 41 off 46 reducing Tamil Nadu to 95/4 in the 16th over. 

The batting side had two new batters including Shahrukh at the crease with more than 50 runs required. While TN lost a couple of more wickets, Shahrukh kept his cool right till the end and eventually concluded the game for the side. 

He returned unbeaten at 33 off 15, a knock that included three maximums and one four. 

KC Cariappa returned with impressive figures of 2/23 in 4 overs for Karnataka. 

The last rites

Tamil Nadu needed 16 off the last over after Shahrukh had hit an important six on the last delivery of the previous over. While Prateek had the ball, Sai Kishore was on strike for Tamil Nadu. 

The left-arm pacer bowled a fuller delivery outside off and Kishore threw his bat on this one to collect a vital boundary and bring the equation down to 12 off 5. Tamil Nadu then scored five runs in the next three legit deliveries including a couple of wides. 

Shahrukh then managed to get a couple on the fifth ball and the equation was down to five required off one ball. 

It was down to the wire and the way Prateek had executed his yorkers, it seemed to be a difficult task for the batting side to go over the line. All three results were possible but Shahrukh had his own plans. 

Prateek just missed the yorker a bit and the right-handed batsman took full advantage of that to hammer a maximum and clinch a win. 

Sai Kishore rips through Karnataka

Tamil Nadu captain Vijay Shankar would be proud of himself that he handed the ball to Sai Kishore in the power play overs. The spinner bowled three overs out of the first six and rattled the Karnataka top-order which included the scalps of Rohan Kadam and Manish Pandey. 

He removed Kadam with a traditional spin for a two-ball duck and later breached Pandey’s defence to clean him up for 13 off 15. 

Karnataka lost a total of three wickets in the powerplay as Karun Nair was dismissed by Sanjay Yadav for 18 off 14. Kishore eventually picked up three wickets for 12 runs in 4 overs. 

The Manish Pandey-led side managed to score 151/7 in 20 overs, courtesy some good batting performance from Abhinav Manohar who struck 46 off 37 and then a late surge from Praveen Dubey who chipped in with a 25-ball 33. 

Shahrukh later revealed what was going through his mind when he faced that final delivery. 

“There were a lot of things in my mind, but I tried to keep it simple. The ball was rough and the wicket was slow, so I wanted to connect it off the middle. I was waiting to hit it over long-on, and I got the room to get it over square leg,” he said during the post-match presentation.