Courtesy: BCCI
On Sunday, December 1, Sanju Samson, the captain of Kerala, had a fiery cameo for Kerala in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2024 clash against Goa at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. In a rain-curtailed contest, the right-handed opening batter scored 31 runs in just 15 balls with four fours and two maximums, playing a key role in Kerala’s 11-run win by DLS method over Goa.
After winning the toss, Kerala captain Sanju Samson decided to bat first despite it being a 13 overs a side contest as heavy rain had arrived earlier in the day in Hyderabad, and he gave a flying start to his team with a plethora of boundaries in the power play stage. Moments after storming his way to 31(15), the opener was dismissed by Felix Alemao as Kashyap Bakhale took the catch, which meant that Kerala were 43/1 after just four overs.
Watch the video of Sanju Samson's fiery innings here:
Kerala registered a 11-run win by DLS method after rain arrived for second time in Hyderabad
The rest of the batters of Kerala kept the momentum going in their innings with the likes of Salman Nazir (34 off 20) and Abdul Basith (23 off 13) scoring majority of the runs. Ultimately, Kerala finished their innings on 143/6 in 13 overs after Felix Alemao and Mohit Redkar picked up a couple of wickets each, but regardless, it was quite a tough target for Goa to chase down with DLS method coming into play.
In the run chase, Goa lost a couple of early wickets with opener Azaan Thota scoring only five runs in 11 balls, which put his time on the backfoot. His partner Ishaan Gadekar was not out on 45 off 22 with four fours and three maximums before rains showed up once again at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, which led to the SMAT clash getting called off as Goa were 69/2 in 7.5 overs, and it meant that Kerala were declared the winners by 11 runs on DLS method.
