Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy: Bista, Tare star in Mumbai's comprehensive victory over Madhya Pradesh

Mumbai clinically dispatched Madhya Pradesh by 9 wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to catapult themselves to the top of Group D of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 competition.

Madhya Pradesh won the toss and elected to bat first on a wonderful strip for stroke-making. However, they got off to the worst possible start when Ashutosh Sharma was caught short of his crease by Sarfaraz Khan.

Naman Ojha and Rajat Patidar then injected the innings with the requisite impetus in the PowerPlay. However, the former fell in the 4th over, thereby casting Parth Sahani as the protagonist of the innings.

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The left-hander didn’t disappoint though as he struck 3 fours and 2 sixes en route a breezy 47 off 36 balls. He found an ally in Anand Bais, who held one end up and allowed the rest of the hitters to function around him.

Eventually, riding on Venkatesh Iyer’s clever innings, MP managed to scale a total of 160. For the hosts, Atif Attarwala and Shams Mulani impressed with the ball.

In reply, Mumbai blazed away at the outset with Aditya Tare and Jay Bista setting the tone. Both batsmen got to grips with the pace of the surface and carved out stupendous shots as the sparse audience looked on in awe.

While the latter perished after making 68 off 36 balls, an innings that comprised 7 fours and 4 lusty hits over the fence, Tare ensured that there were no slip-ups as he batted through the chase and got Mumbai across the finish line.

Mumbai skipper, Suryakumar Yadav gave the wicket-keeper company towards the end as the hosts ransacked the target with 25 balls to spare.

The win represented their 3rd positive result on the trot and they would be hoping to inch a step closer to qualification against Puducherry on the 12th of November.