Ajinkya Rahane scored a flawless 98 but missed out on a hundred as Mumbai defeated Baroda by six wickets to enter the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.
Rahane hit five sixes and 11 fours during his 56-ball knock and when he attempted to go another hit – Mumbai only required one run at that moment – the right-handed batter ended up skying the ball and was caught by the keeper.
Mumbai had enough balls and batters in the bank to complete the chase and enter its second SMAT final.
Rahane got terrific support from captain Shreyas Iyer, who hit a 30-ball 46 hitting three sixes and four fours. Their 88-run second wicket stand set the base for a dominating chase for Mumbai.
Earlier, Baroda was put into bat first under overcast conditions. Krunal Pandya and Shashwat Rawat took the score to 73 in the first nine overs but Suryansh Shedge had the former caught, triggering a batting collapse.
From 73/1 to 103/6, Baroda lost wickets in heaps before Atit Sheth and Shivalik Sharma played attacking cameos to take the score to 158 for seven.