In a power show of batting, Baroda released their potential in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2024 with open-heartedness, setting a new record of the highest team total in T20 cricket of 349/5 against Sikkim. The match, which took place at the Emerald High School Ground in Indore, had the Baroda top order give no respite to the Sikkim bowlers and dominate the game.
Baroda was outstanding with the bat right through the match, where all five major batting players scored well. The team started off and literally caught fire, and all the batting team’s major players experienced a striking rate of over 17 runs for 20 overs altogether. The inning belonged to Bhanu Pania, who came in at number 3 and unleashed a devastating display, hammering 134 to the boundary and not out in 51 deliveries. Dramatic hitting was seen from Pania who scored a total of 15 big sixes and managed to share his wicket with his teammates and make the runs accumulate at a faster rate.
But besides Pania’s reckoning, three other Baroda batsmen also played vital knocks. It was another story of rampage by Abhimanyusingh Rajput, Shivalik Sharma and Vishnu Solanki, who scored half-centurys with great zeal, power and impressive strike rates. Their aggressive strokes, belying their position, made Baroda take 100 runs in the powerplay, 200 runs in the 11th over, and reach 300 in 18 overs.
The raw aggression that Baroda showcased left Sikkim’s bowlers stranded with their impotent wielding of the ball, herding the flow of runs. This terrific aggregate of runs not only broke the earlier record of the highest tally in T20 but also created a record for the maximum number of sixes in an innings. Baroda’s carnage at the SMAT 2024 has established a new benchmark for T20 cricket, which shows how much power-hitting is possible in the format.
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