The group stage of the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) concluded on Monday, December 8. Several clubs were still vying for the top two spots in their individual groups to advance to the competition’s Super League stage, which begins on December 12.
Jharkhand remained unbeaten in the group stages, winning all seven matches and advancing to the Super League with 32 points. Defending champions Mumbai also cruised through, claiming six wins out of seven.
Punjab and Madhya Pradesh were the other heavyweight sides, while strong teams such as Karnataka, Vidarbha, and Tamil Nadu narrowly missed qualification. Four sides in Group B finished on 16 points each, battling for second place.
Madhya Pradesh ultimately edged ahead thanks to a superior net run rate, leaving Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, and Goa so near yet so far.
On that topic, let us look at the top five scorers in Round 7 of SMAT 2025-26.
1. Ajinkya Rahane
Ajinkya Rahane rolled back the years with a classy innings during Mumbai’s run chase against Odisha in Lucknow. After Mumbai’s bowlers held the opposition to 167/7, Rahane and Sarfaraz Khan provided the perfect launchpad at the top.
The pair raced to 74 runs inside the powerplay before Sarfaraz’s dismissal, but Rahane ensured there was no let-up. With Angkrish Raghuvanshi playing a supporting role at No. 3, the former India skipper took control, finding the boundary with ease on his way to an unbeaten 95 off 56 balls.
Mumbai completed the chase with four overs remaining, wrapping up their SMAT group-stage campaign in convincing fashion.
2. Sai Sudharsan
With a poor opening to his red-ball international career and an awful opening to his SMAT 2025-26 season, Sai Sudharsan was the match-winner in the game between Tamil Nadu and Saurashtra played in Ahmedabad.
Tamil Nadu, which had been having widespread SMAT group stage campaign, was in need of a spurt on the last match. The southern was left with 184 to kill even after they had decreased the opponent to 59-4.
Having performed in the same venue with which he has spent his time with the Gujarat Titans GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Sudharsan found the upper hand to lead the run chase even with wickets falling around him.
He held his own and enabled Tamil Nadu to get across the line in the penultimate over when he reached the three figure mark with the last shot of the game. At some point, he was caught on one end with the team having now diminished to 29-3 in the fourth over.
3. Mohammad Shami
Once again the veteran Bengal pacer picked up one of the wickets in the 2025-26 SMAT group stage. He scored 4-30 in his second four-fer of the campaign to date against Haryana in Hyderabad.
The right-arm pacer sent back the threatening-appearing Yashvardhan Dalal, and swept out the lower division. Nevertheless, he did not succeed in his endeavours when Haryana recorded a huge 191-9 in the first innings.
Shami made five runs out of six deliveries in the run chase, although Bengal were bowled out in turn with 167 in their reply and did not qualify in the next round.
4. Naman Dhir
The Mumbai Indians (MI) star was keen to make sure that Punjab did not miss Abhishek Sharma as the latter moved to the country on national duty. Naman Dhir had his magnificent 31-ball 61 that the team could engrave 188-8 in the board and could defend to get their third consecutive win in 2025-26 SMAT.
Naman Dhir, who had blasted four fours and three sixes, in arriving at No.4 with Punjab now left with 17-2 in the 4th over, followed by the return of both openers in the hut, had his second consecutive fifty of the 2025-26 SMAT campaign.
He is currently averaging 49.50 and a strike rate of 165 as he plays a key role in the middle order at Punjab. The team achieved qualification by a final position of the first place in Group B where it had won five matches among seven matches.
5. Auqib Nabi
Jammu and Kashmir Auqib Nabi earned his hype by another match winning performance as one of the hottest prospects in the player pool before the IPL 2026 mini auction.
After picking up at least a wicket on each of the six matches in the 2025-26 SMAT campaign, he went on a rampage this time around with an all-round performance. Nabi hit the biggest score of his T20 career in the first part of the low-scoring, exciting match between Madhya Pradesh and himself at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. He entered the bat at a time when the team was already at 84-5 and registered a 32 on a 21-ball hit to be the highest scorer and push the team to 150-9.
He ended with brilliant statistics of 3-19 with the ball in his four overs to get Madhya Pradesh out at 137.
