• Source:JND
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Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024: Kerala locked horns with Mumbai in the Group E clash of the ongoing domestic tournament in Hyderabad on Friday. Mumbai had won the toss and chose to bowl first but the Mumbai bowlers were taken to the cleaners from Kerala's top-order batters, especially Rohan Kunnumal and Salman Nizar.

Although Rohan got out after scoring a brilliant knock of 87 runs off 48 balls, Salman kept attacking the bowlers from the other end. But at the same time, in the IPL 2025 mega auction, he went unsold. They stitched a brilliant partnership of 140 runs for the fourth wicket and then Rohan was dismissed. Salman scored an unbeaten knock of 99 runs off 49 balls, where he smashed five fours and eight sixes.

Salman Nizar played at a staggering strike rate of 202.04 and helped his team post a mammoth target of 234/5 against Mumbai. It should be noted here that Salman was one of the few players, who filed a complaint against Sachin Baby's captaincy to KSCA in 2018.

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But the Shreyas Iyer's led side bowling attack once again failed to perform. Except for Ajinkya Rahane, who scored a gritty knock of 68 runs off 35 balls, and skipper Iyer scored 32 runs off 18 balls, none of the other batters could score more than 30 runs. Mumbai scored 191/9 after 20 overs and thus Kerala won the match by 43 runs. Kerala's MD Nidheesh was the pick among the bowlers as he took four wickets, whereas Vinod Kumar and Abdul Basith took two wickets each.

Kerala jumps to second spot in Group E

After this win, Kerala has won two consecutive matches and has lost just one match against Maharashtra. They had defeated Nagaland by eight wickets and then made Mumbai suffer their first loss in three matches. Kerala are now lying in the second position in Group E after winning three matches of the four that they have played till now.

Although Andhra Pradesh is currently the table toppers after winning three matches. At the same time, Mumbai have slipped to the third position after losing this match but they do have a positive NRR of +0.240. They will lock horns with Nagaland in the fourth match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024.