Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024-25: Rajasthan hands Hyderabad second consecutive loss

Chasing 188, Hyderabad fell short of the target by 24 runs despite late efforts from Tanay Thyagarajan and Prateek Reddy.

Rajasthan players celebrate a Hyderabad wicket during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. | Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI / THE HINDU.

Rajasthan continued its winning run in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, defeating Hyderabad in the third-round fixture of Group ‘A’ at the Niranjan Shah Stadium on Wednesday.

Chasing 188, Hyderabad fell short of the target by 24 runs despite late efforts from Tanay Thyagarajan and Prateek Reddy.

The duo joined hands in the 15th over and began the counterattack. Both Prateek and Thyagarajan had a liking for Kamlesh Nagarkoti’s pace as they hit him behind square for pulls and scoops.

However, Deepak Chahar cleaned up Prateek with a yorker in the penultimate over and the target was too far for Thyagarajan to guide the team home.

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Tanmay Agarwal began Hyderabad’s quest with a six in the first over of Aniket Choudhary but the left-arm pacer struck in his second over to remove the other opener Rahul Singh. Aniket struck again in his next over and got the priced wicket of Tilak Varma, who only managed 13.

Between the two dismissals, Tanmay and Tilak smacked 19 runs off Nagarkoti’s first over. First, Tilak came down the track and hit the pacer over cover, then Tanmay cut him over point for four before pulling him for a six and finishing the over with a lofted drive over mid-on.

However, the captain’s wicket pushed Hyderabad on the backfoot. Soon, Tanmay also departed, caught in the deep off Deepak Hooda.

Rahul Buddhi kept the scoreboard ticking but a miscommunication with Mickil Jaiswal saw him stuck in the middle of the pitch. With Manav Suthar, Rajasthan scalped Jaiswal and Ravi Teja quickly, setting up Hyderabad’s back-to-back defeats in the tournament.

Earlier, after opting to bat, Rajasthan had a sedate start with openers Abhijeet Tomar and Bharat Sharma falling inside the PowerPlay. The team could only manage 39 runs in the first six overs.

However, Kartik Sharma and Hooda compensated in the middle overs with their 97-run stand for the third wicket. Kartik, in particular, looked in glorious touch lofting the ball over cover and long on, on several occasions and scored his fifty in 23 balls. He was later caught at the deep midwicket boundary off Thyagarajan.

Hooda played second fiddle to Kartik for the most part but found occasional boundaries as well during his 30-ball 46. He, too, fell an over later trying to clear Tilak over the ropes.

Just when Hyderabad bowlers looked to take control of the death overs, Zubair Ali Khan’s quickfire 31 off 20 balls gave Rajasthan the final boost which ultimately proved to be the difference between the teams.