Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Karan Shinde stars in Andhra Pradesh’s best-ever chase in SMAT

Southpaw Karan Shinde’s brilliance (75, 38b, 9x4, 4x6) helped Andhra pull off a two-wicket win in opposition to Bihar from a seemingly troublesome place at 68 for 5 in 8.5 overs within the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T-20 cricket championship Elite Group D match at Holkar Stadium right here on Tuesday.

This was the second win for Andhra from 4 video games after the primary two have been deserted due to rain.

Andhra, chasing 182, was off to a dismal begin shedding opener Abhishek Reddy within the first over. Quickly, the harmful trying Ashwin Hebbar (24, 12b, 4x4, 1x6), captain Okay. Srikar Bharat (5), have been dismissed by pacer Abhijeet Saket, who bowled 4 overs on the trot to select a three-wicket haul.

Then, left-arm pacer Anuj Raj compelled Hanuma Vihari (9) to snick to wicketkeeper Bipin Saurabh, decreasing Andhra to 47 for 4 in 5.2 overs.

Later, a match-winning stand of 92 off 52 balls between the skilled Ricky Bhui (37, 29b, 2x4, 1x6) and the younger Shinde took Andhra near the goal. Shinde was the extra dominant, capitalising on an erratic bowling to play some extravagant strokes, watched by former India coach John Wright, scouting expertise for Mumbai Indians.

Simply when Bihar hoped for a comeback, Shinde hit pacer Harsh for 3 fours within the seventeenth over to close Bihar out of the competition. Fairly fittingly, Okay.V. Sasikanth executed a flat batted six off left-arm pacer Anuj Raj to see Andhra end with its best-ever chase within the championship historical past.

Earlier, wicketkeeper-batsman Bipin Saurabh (52, 39, 4x4, 3x6) and Babul Kumar (72, 50b, 10x4, 1x6) placed on 118 in 13.5 overs with the latter being the extra spectacular with some audacious inside-out strokes of each tempo and spin.

Nevertheless, Andhra bowlers did properly within the slog overs to limit Bihar to 181 for 2 regardless of breezy knocks by Sakibul Gani (33 n.o., 17b 2x4, 2x6) and Sachin Kumar Singh (19 n.o., 3x4).