The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 opened with a full day of tight finishes on Saturday, as Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Saurashtra and Madhya Pradesh all began their campaigns with wins in the 38-team tournament.
Punjab produced the chase of the day in Indore, overhauling Haryana’s 190 for 6 with five balls to spare. Vihaan Malhotra led the way with 86, and Uday Saharan’s unbeaten 42 saw Punjab home at 193 for 6 in 19.1 overs. Haryana had posted a strong total through Dinesh Bana’s 42 and Rahul Tewatia’s unbeaten 35, but Sumit Kumar’s 3 for 55 could not stop Punjab from taking the four points.
Tamil Nadu’s win was even tighter. Sent in at the Daly College ground, Tamil Nadu posted 172 for 7, recovering from a mid-innings wobble through Shahrukh Khan and R. Rajkumar. Shahrukh rediscovered his finishing touch with an unbeaten 46 from 30 balls, including five fours and two sixes, while Rajkumar smashed 31 from 13, the pair adding 55 in 33 balls for the fifth wicket. Railways looked on course when Toufik Mondal’s 57 and Zuber Ali’s 46 carried them into a 69-run seventh-wicket stand off just 31 balls, but Gurjapneet Singh held his nerve to defend 11 from the final over, and Railways finished on 166 for 9, six runs short.
Saurashtra made lighter work of their opener, beating Bihar by five wickets. Bihar were held to 137 for 9, with Chetan Sakariya taking 3 for 33 and Prerak Mankad 3 for 20, before Saurashtra chased the target down in 16.3 overs. Harvansh Pangalia top-scored with 33, and Suraj Kashyap’s 3 for 39 for Bihar came too late to change the result.
Madhya Pradesh also opened with a five-wicket win, beating Kerala in New Chandigarh. Kerala posted 138 for 6, built around Salman Nizar’s 69 and Akhil Scaria’s 32, but Tripuresh Singh’s 3 for 28 and Avesh Khan’s 2 for 29 kept the total in check. Chasing 139, Madhya Pradesh reached 142 for 5 in 18.4 overs, with Akshat Raghuwanshi making 45 and captain Rajat Patidar finishing the job unbeaten on 36.
Elsewhere, Rajasthan beat Uttar Pradesh by six wickets after chasing 172, Vidarbha beat Goa by seven wickets, Gujarat beat Odisha by 24 runs, and Andhra beat Tripura by 43 runs. Himachal Pradesh beat Assam by 16 runs under the VJD method, Puducherry beat Maharashtra by 15 runs, Chandigarh beat Baroda by three wickets, and Jharkhand beat Mizoram by six wickets. In the Plate Group, Meghalaya beat Nagaland by 18 runs and Manipur beat Arunachal Pradesh by 61 runs.
Mumbai’s seven-wicket win over Hyderabad, powered by Suryakumar Yadav’s 15-ball fifty, and Delhi’s 103-run thrashing of Jammu and Kashmir, built on Mayank Yadav’s career-best 5 for 14, were the other headline results of the opening day.
