SMAT 2023: Ashutosh Sharma hits record breaking half century as Railways defeats Arunachal Pradesh

Ashutosh (25), brought up his fifty off just 11 balls for the fastest T20 fifty by an Indian batter, previously held by Yuvraj Singh for 16 years since he hit six sixes in an over To get to his fifty off 12 balls.

REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO: Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy results | Photo Credit: AFP

Ashutosh Sharma scored a record-breaking half-century (53, 12b, 1x4, 8x6) to help Railways get to 246 for five from 131 for four and post an 127-run win over Arunachal Pradesh in the Group-C match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 cricket tournament at Ranchi here on Tuesday.

Railways plundered 115 runs in the last five overs. Wicketkeeper Upendra Yadav top-scored with an unbeaten 103 (51b, 6x4, 9x6) for Railways.

Ashutosh (25), in his second T20 match for Railways, brought up his fifty off just 11 balls for the fastest T20 fifty by an Indian batter, the record previously held by Yuvraj Singh for 16 years since he hit six sixes in an over off Stuart Broad to get to his fifty off 12 balls versus England in the 2007 T20 World Cup.

Ashutosh’s is the second-fastest T20 fifty overall. Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee holds the record for the fastest fifty (9 balls), a feat he achieved when he scored an unbeaten 52 off 10 balls (8x6) versus Mongolia in the Asian Games in Hangzhou last month.

In another Group-C match, left-handed opener Abhishek Sharma top-scored with 112 (51b, 9x4, 9x6) to help Punjab beat Andhra by 105 runs. Ricky Bhui’s unbeaten 104 (52b, 6x4, 9x6) for Andhra went in vain.

The scores:

Group-A (At Jaipur):

Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) 159/8 in 20 overs (Shubham Pundir 58) lost to Hyderabad 160/2 in 18.3 overs (Rohit Rayudu 38, Tilak Varma 58 n.o., Rahul Singh 35 n.o.); Points: Hyderabad 4 (8), J&K 0 (0).

Meghalaya 65/9 in 20 overs (Tushar Deshpande 3/8) lost to Mumbai 66/1 in 9.4 overs (Angkrish Raghuvanshi 32 n.o.); Mumbai 4 (8), Meghalaya 0 (0).

Mizoram 97/7 in 20 overs (Lukman Meriwala 3/12) lost to Baroda 98/4 in 14 overs (Bhanu Pania 36 n.o., K.C. Cariappa 3/17); Baroda 4 (8), Mizoram 0 (0).

Haryana 162/5 in 20 overs (Ankit Kumar 59, Himanshu Rana 31) lost to Chhattisgarh 163/6 in 19.2 overs (Harpreet Singh 53, Ajay Mandal 33 n.o.); Chhattisgarh 4 (8), Haryana 0 (0).

Group-B (At Mumbai):

Assam 200/5 in 20 overs (Rishav Das 32, Riyan Parag 61) bt Bihar 195/4 in 20 overs (Bipin Saurabh 85, Sakibul Gani 65); Assam 4 (4), Bihar 0 (0).

Sikkim 90/9 in 20 overs (Sandeep Sharma 3/13) lost to Chandigarh 94/2 in 10.1 overs (Manan Vohra 36 n.o., Shivam Bhambri 33); Chandigarh 4 (8), Sikkim 0 (0).

Odisha 138/7 in 20 overs (Abhishek Yadav 38 n.o., Rakesh Pattnaik 40) lost to Himachal Pradesh (HP) 140/2 in 16.3 overs (Ekant Sen 39, Prashant Chopra 35, Sumeet Verma 58 n.o.); HP 4 (4), Odisha 0 (4).

Kerala 189/3 in 20 overs (Vishnu Vinod 109 n.o., Salman Nizar 42 n.o.) bt Services 188/5 in 20 overs (Shubham Rohilla 41, Vikas Hathwala 40 n.o.); Kerala 4 (8), Services 0 (4).

Group-C (At Ranchi):

Manipur 122/9 in 20 overs (Johnson Singh 50) lost to Goa 123/4 in 16.2 overs (Ishaan Gedekar 34, K.V. Siddhanth 39); Goa 4 (8), Manipur 0 (0).

Punjab 275/6 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 112, Anmolpreet Singh 87) bt Andhra 170/7 in 20 overs (Ricky Bhui 104 n.o., Harpreet Brar 3/18); Punjab 4 (4), Andhra 0 (0).

Railways 246/5 in 20 overs (Upendra Yadav 103 n.o., Ashutosh Sharma 53) bt Arunachal Pradesh 119 in 18.1 overs (Ayush Awasthi 36, Susheel Kumar 4/17); Railways 4 (8), Arunachal 0 (0).

Saurashtra 122/6 in 16.2 overs (Harvik Desai 41) lost to Gujarat 110/4 in 10.2 overs (Umang Kumar 35 n.o., Chirag Jani 3/21); Gujarat won by six wickets by VJD method; Gujarat 4 (8), Saurashtra 0 (4).

Group-D (At Mohali):

Uttarakhand 171/2 in 16.4 overs (Yuvraj Chaudhary 78, Avneesh Sudha 78) bt Maharashtra 105/6 in 11 overs (Azim Kazi 35, Nikhil Naik 33 n.o.); Uttarakhand won by 23 runs by VJD method; Uttarakhand 4 (4), Maharashtra 0 (4).

Bengal 172/7 in 20 overs (Sudip Kumar Gharami 39, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury 51 n.o., Khaleel Ahmed 3/41) bt Rajasthan 143/9 in 20 overs (Abhijeet Tomar 48, Akash Deep 3/29, Ishan Porel 3/20); Bengal 4 (4), Rajasthan 0 (2).

Puducherry 188/4 in 20 overs (Akash Kargave 61, Arun Karthik 66 n.o., Parameeswaran Sivaraman 37, Rahul Shukla 3/34) lost to Jharkhand 189/6 in 19.3 overs (Anukul Roy 43, Pankaj Kumar 35 n.o.); Jharkhand 4 (4), Puducherry 0 (2).

Group-E (At Dehradun):

Madhya Pradesh (MP) 115/9 in 20 overs (Rahul Batham 32, Suyash Sharma 5/13) lost to Delhi 119/3 in 19.2 overs (Ayush Badoni 44 n.o.); Delhi 4 (6), MP 0 (2).

Tamil Nadu (TN) 146/6 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 46, Vijay Shankar 42, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/31) bt Uttar Pradesh (UP) 138/5 in 20 overs (Sameer Rizvi 75 n.o.); TN 4 (6), UP 0 (2).

Nagaland 129/4 in 20 overs (Joshua Ozukum 46, Sedezhalie Rupero 31) lost to Tripura 132/7 in 19.5 overs (Wriddhiman Saha 41, R.S. Jaganath Sinivas 3/29); Tripura 4 (4), Nagaland 0 (2).