Mumbai beat Vidarbha in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy semi-finals on back of Shreyas Iyer’s 73

Mumbai beat Vidarbha in the second semi-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in a comprehensive manner chasing down a target of 165 in 16.5 overs and sealed the second final spot.

Shreyas Iyer starred for Mumbai, scoring 73 off 44 deliveries, with seven boundaries and four maximums. Prithvi Shaw also helped Mumbai to a brisk start, scoring 34 off 21 deliveries. Shivam Dube gave his side the finishing touch, hitting two maximums towards the end and finishing the match with 19 balls to spare.

Mumbai were aggressive throughout their run chase, and despite of losing wickets, never allowed the opposition an opportunity to fight back.

Mumbai will now face Himachal Pradesh in the finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, who beat Punjab earlier in the day to reach their maiden final.

“HP have done well as well. You can’t underestimate anyone. It is important to execute the plan on the given day,” Iyer said about their opponents in the final.

Talking about his performance against Vidarbha, he said, “I am happy that I took it till the end. My mindset was to stay in 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.

“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 on everything. I missed out on a few shots in the last game. I usually take on the spinners. The opposition is always under pressure in a game like this.”

Earlier, in the first innings, Vidarbha were restricted to 164/7 in 20 overs as Mumbai bowled tight lines and didn’t allow their opponents to bat freely. None of the Vidarbha batters were able to cross 50-run mark.

Both the teams have never won the trophy earlier, and hence, we will see a new T20 champion in the Indian domestic circuit. The final will be played on Saturday at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Brief scores: Vidarbha 164/7 from 20 overs (Jitesh Sharma 46, Shams Mulani 3/20) lost to Mumbai 169/5 from 16.5 overs (Shreyas Iyer 73, Akshay Karnewar 2/24) by 5 wickets

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