Veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed a triple-wicket maiden as Uttar Pradesh secured a narrow 10-run victory over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) group-stage match against Jharkhand at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. Chasing 161 for victory, Jharkhand looked steady in patches, but Bhuvneshwar’s masterful swing derailed their chase. Bowling with the new ball, the Meerut-born pacer conceded just six runs in his first three overs. When he returned in the 17th over, Bhuvneshwar delivered a game-changing final over, dismissing Robin Minz, Bal Krishna, and Vivek Anand Tiwari on consecutive deliveries to claim a sensational hat-trick. He finished with exceptional figures of 4-1-6-3, ensuring Jharkhand fell short by 10 runs.
This was Uttar Pradesh’s fifth win in seven matches, while this was Jharkhand’s second defeat in seven games.
This performance caps off a historic SMAT season for Bhuvneshwar. Last month, in Uttar Pradesh’s opening match against Delhi, he became the first Indian pacer to reach 300 T20 wickets, surpassing Jasprit Bumrah.
Bhuvneshwar has accumulated 90 T20I wickets between 2012 and 2022, making him India’s second-highest wicket-taking pacer in the format. He has 181 wickets in 176 SMAT matches in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Last month, the ace seamer was roped in by Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the IPL 2025 Mega Auction for Rs 10.75 crore.
Meanwhile, Skipper Abhishek Sharma equaled the record for the fastest T20 century by an Indian batsman as he smashed a sensational 100 off just 28 balls for Punjab in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) match against Meghalaya at the Niranjan Shah Stadium C on Thursday.
With his unbeaten innings of 106 off 29, laced with 11 maximums and eight boundaries, Abhishek equaled the record for the fastest T20 century by an Indian batter with Gujarat’s Urvil Patel, who had smashed a 28-ball century against Tripura earlier in this tournament in Indore.
Chasing a modest target of 143, Abhishek raced to his half-century in just 12 balls before reaching the historic milestone in just 28 balls as Punjab chased down the target in just 9.3 overs.
Abhishek’s sensational innings broke his lean patch in the tournament, as in his six previous innings, he managed 149 runs, crossing fifty only once.
Besides his heroics with bat, Abhishek also calmed two wickets in his four-over quota after conceding 24 runs at an economy of 6 as Punjab restricted Meghalaya on 142-7 in 20 overs.
Globally, Abhishek’s feat puts him just shy of the all-time fastest T20 century, a 27-ball effort by Estonia’s Sahil Chauhan against Cyprus.
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