Mumbai registered a clinical five-wicket win over Vidarbha in the second semifinal of the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2022 at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Thursday, to make it to the final for the first ever time in the competition’s history. The star of the show was Shreyas Iyer, who stroked 73 off 44 against Vidarbha to help his side complete the 165-run chase with 3.1 overs remaining.
The 27-year-old added 43 for the third wicket with opener Prithvi Shaw (34 off 21), and another 71 with Sarfaraz Khan (27 off 19) to set up after skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Yashasvi Jaiswal were dismissed within the first four overs. The right-hander struck seven fours and four sixes during his blitz.
Interestingly, Iyer was named one of India’s travelling reserves for the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 in before being released from the group.
“I am happy that I took it till the end. My mindset was to stay in the attacking mode. Dew factor played an important part as well. We tried to punish the loose balls. The spinners also didn’t get much turn,”
the player reflected on his innings.
“When Prithvi was batting, you always keep getting runs. We told him to stay at least till the first six overs. Few of our good batters didn’t get a start. I was connecting almost everything.”
Mumbai will face Himachal Pradesh in the final on Saturday at the same venue, with the latter having defeated Punjab by 13 runs in the first semifinal earlier this week.
Looking forward to the final of the tournament, Iyer said:
“Himachal Pradesh have done well as well. You can’t underestimate anyone. It is important to execute the plan on the given day.”
