Top 5 performers in Round 7 of SMAT 2025-26 ft. Ajinkya Rahane 

The group stage of the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) came to a close on Monday, December 8. Several teams were still in the reckoning for the top two spots in their respective groups to earn a place in the knockout stage of the competition, scheduled to begin on December 12.

Jharkhand finished the group stage unbeaten, winning all seven matches to march into the quarter finals with 32 points to their name. Defending champions Mumbai also secured qualification with ease, securing six wins out of seven matches.

Other heavyweight sides like Punjab and Madhya Pradesh also feature, but massive teams like Karnataka, Vidarbha, and Tamil Nadu missed out on qualification by some margin. Group B saw four teams finish with 16 points to compete for the second spot.

However, it was Madhya Pradesh who won the scrap courtesy of net run-rate, leaving the likes of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, and Goa so near, yet so far.

On that note, let us take a look at the top five performers in Round 7 of SMAT 2025-26.

#1 Ajinkya Rahane

The veteran Mumbai batter was at his fluent best during the run chase against Odisha in Lucknow. After the bowlers restricted the opposition to 167-7, the defending champions were bolstered by a quickfire start from Sarfaraz Khan and Ajinkya Rahane.

The pair put up 74 runs in the powerplay, before Sarfaraz was dismissed. However, Rahane ensured that the run chase remained on course with his brilliance. No.3 batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi largely played second fiddle as the opening batter raked in the boundaries on a regular basis to finish with an unbeaten 95 off 56.

Mumbai wrapped up the run chase with four overs to spare to end their SMAT group stage campaign on a high.

#2 Sai Sudharsan

Amid a mixed start to his red-ball international career and a dismal start to his SMAT 2025-26 campaign, Sai Sudharsan became the match-winner for Tamil Nadu in the contest against Saurashtra in Ahmedabad.

Tamil Nadu, enduring a horrid SMAT group stage campaign, needed a burst in the final contest. Even after reducing the opponent to 59-4, the southern side had a massive target of 184 to hunt down.

Featuring at a more-than-familiar venue courtesy of his time with the Gujarat Titans GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Sudharsan made the most of the advantage by spearheading the run chase despite wickets crumbling around him.

He kept his nerve to remain unbeaten and help Tamil Nadu cross the line in the penultimate over, getting to the three-figure mark with the final shot of the game. At one stage, he was stranded at one end as the team were reduced to 29-3 in the fourth over.

#3 Mohammad Shami

The veteran Bengal pacer was once again among the wickets in the 2025-26 SMAT group stage. He bagged figures of 4-30 against Haryana in Hyderabad, his second four-fer of the campaign so far.

The right-arm pacer dismissed the dangerous-looking Yashvardhan Dalal, before wiping out the lower order. However, his efforts ended in vain as Haryana posted a dominant score of 191-9 in the first innings.

Shami chipped in with five runs off six deliveries in the run chase, but Bengal were bowled out for 167 in reply, failing to qualify for the SMAT knockouts.

#4 Naman Dhir

The Mumbai Indians (MI) star ensured that Punjab did not feel Abhishek Sharma's absence as the latter left for national duty. Naman Dhir's stunning 31-ball 61 meant that the team were able to post 188-8 on the board, and then defend it to register their third win on the trot in 2025-26 SMAT.

Coming in at No.4 when Punjab were reduced to 17-2 in the fourth over with both openers back in the hut, Naman Dhir smashed four fours and three sixes to record his second successive fifty in the 2025-26 SMAT campaign.

He now holds an average of 49.50 and a strike rate of 165 while playing a crucial role in the middle order for Punjab. The team secured qualification after finishing at the top of Group B, with five wins out of seven matches.

#5 Auqib Nabi

One of the hottest prospects in the player pool ahead of the IPL 2026 mini auction, Jammu and Kashmir's Auqib Nabi justified the hype around him with yet another match-winning display.

Having picked up at least a wicket in each of his six matches in the 2025-26 SMAT campaign, he unleashed an all-round display this time around. In the first innings of the low-scoring, thrilling clash against Madhya Pradesh at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Nabi smashed the highest score of his T20 career. Coming into bat when the team were reeling at 84-5, he scored a 21-ball 32 to end as the top scorer at propel the score to 150-9.

With the ball, he finished with stellar figures of 3-19 off his four overs to bowl Madhya Pradesh out for 137.