The 2025-26 season of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), the biggest T20 tournament in Indian domestic cricket, ended with its exciting final. In the final match, Jharkhand defeated Haryana by a huge margin of 69 runs and claimed this prestigious title for the first time. In this victory, Jharkhand captain Ishan Kishan’s stormy innings made the team victorious. Ishan scored 101 runs in 45 balls in the final and played an important role in helping the team reach 262 runs.
Apart from Ishan, Usuk Roy also contributed significantly to Jharkhand’s victory with his all-round performance. Roy also took 2 wickets in 4 overs in bowling and added 40 runs in 20 balls in batting to bring the team to a strong position.
The final match was played on December 18 at the MCA Cricket Stadium in Pune. During the tournament, Jharkhand performed brilliantly and won 9 of their last 10 matches in a row. The only loss before the finals could not affect the team’s title race. Captain Ishan Kishan’s brilliant form was considered to be the main reason for the team’s success.
In the final , Jharkhand batted first and got off to a great start with captain Ishan’s explosive innings . Opener Virat Singh was dismissed early, but Ishan Kishan started the attack in brilliant fashion. His storming partnership of 177 runs for the second wicket with Kumar Kushagra put Jharkhand in a strong position. Meanwhile, Ishan completed his century in just 45 balls, while Kushagra returned to the pavilion after scoring 81 runs. After this, Usuk Roy and Robin Menge added 75 runs in just 32 balls to take the team to a score of 262 runs. Robin Menge scored 31 runs in 14 balls and Usav Roy played an explosive innings of 40 runs in 20 balls.
Haryana’s struggling innings and Jharkhand’s bowling dominated
Haryana’s start was very poor. In the very first over, including captain Ankit Kumar, two wickets fell for just one run, in which left-arm pacer Vikas Kumar played an important role. Despite this, Yashvardhan Dalal scored the fastest fifty in 19 balls, while Nishant Sindhu and Samant Jakhar also batted well. But the three players could not convert their start into big scores.
Jharkhand’s left-arm pacer Sushant Mishra took three important wickets for 27 runs in 4 overs, while Usuk Roy also gave the decisive lead to the team by dispatching Yashvardhan Dalal and Nishant Sindhu. In the end, the entire team of Haryana was all out for 193 runs in 18.3 overs.