Captain Shreyas Iyer leads from the front with an unbeaten ton

Riding on a brilliant ton by Captain Shreyas Iyer, former champions Mumbai defeated hosts Goa by 26 runs in their first round Group E league match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) T20 cricket championship at Gymkhana Ground, Hydrabad on Saturday.

The Indian star Shreyas who came in to bat at no.3 soon after the visitors lost their young opener Angkrish Raghuvanshi (6) early on

Put into bat, Mumbai was off to a dismal start losing his opener Angkrish Raghuvanshi (6) to Shubham Tari in the second over of the innings after put in to bat added 57-run with former skipper Prithvi Shaw for the second wicket at a brisk pace.

Shaw (33) who looked in fine touch however was castled by left-arm spinner Darshan Misal in the sixth over.  The experienced campaigner Shreyas took the lead and scored boundaries at will on either side of the wicket From then, it was Shreyas’ show - scoring boundaries and sixes on either side of the wicket against both spin and pace at will with ease and raced to his third century of the season in the company of all-rounder Shams Mulani (41). The duo put on 114 for the fourth wicket off 48 balls which helped Mumbai score 250 for four in 20 overs. Shreyas who was lucky to get three reprieves en-route remained unbeaten on 130 off 57 balls which was laced with 11 fours and ten massive sixes.

In reply, Goa suffered two early blows in power play but recovered well to put up a good fight largely due to the efforts of their opener Ishaan Gadekar (40) and Suyash Prabhudessai (52) who added 52 runs for the third wicket. Thereafter the host lost wickets at regular intervals in the face of mounting run rate on a batter-friendly wicket. A late cameo 27 ball unbeaten 41 run cameo by Vikas Singh which included four boundaries and three sixes only delayed the inevitable as Mumbai eventually wrapped up the result restricting Goa to 224 for eight.

In another Group E match here, Maharashtra scored a six-wicket win over Nagaland at Uppal thanks to fine knocks by Arshin Kulkarni (62 retd out,) and Ankit Bawne (73 n.o.).

Brief Scores (Group E):

Mumbai - 250/4 in 20 overs (Shreyas Iyer 130 n.o., Shams Mulani 41, Prithvi Shaw 33; Darshan Misal 2/35, Shubham Tari 1/37, Heramb Parab 1/59) beat Goa - 224/8 in 20 overs (Ishaan Gadekar 40, Suyash Prabhudessai 52, Vikas Singh 47 n.o.; Suryansh Shedge 2/18, Royston Dias 2/47, Shams Mulani 1/25, Tanush Kotian 1/27, Shardul Thakur 1/43, Mohit Avasthi 1/62) by 26 runs; Nagaland -150/4 in 20 overs (Shamphri Terang 59, Chetan Bist 35) lost to Maharashtra - 151/4 in 15.1 overs (Arshin Kulkarni 62 retd out, Ankit Bawne 73 n.o.) by six wickets.