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Former Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi captain Nitish Rana engaged in a heated argument with current Delhi skipper Ayush Badoni during the SMAT 2024 quarterfinal clash. The incident took place as Uttar Pradesh locked horns with Delhi in a thrilling encounter of SMAT on Wednesday, December 11, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Earlier in the game, UP skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the toss and invited the rivals to put the score on the board first.
Delhi got off to a blistering start as openers Priyansh Arya and Yash Dhull came up with knocks of 44 runs off 31 balls and 42 runs off 34 balls, respectively. The duo put together a decent partnership of 81 runs for the first wicket off 61 balls. During the first innings of the match, Delhi skipper Ayush Badoni was seen taking a quick single against Nitish Rana during the third ball of the 13th over. Things got heated up when after the completion of the run, Rana charged towards Badoni and said a few words to him. Badoni also reacted and the two engaged in a heated argument. Before the situation could get worse, the umpires stepped in and separated both the players.
Delhi defeat UP by 19 runs to secure semifinal spot
Coming back to the game, Delhi openers Arya and Dhull were dismissed by Nitish Rana and Mohsin Khan, respectively, in back-to-back overs. Following them, the duo of Ayush Badoni and Anuj Rawat came on the crease and added 77 runs for the fourth wicket off 39 balls, taking their side’s score past 160. Badoni came up with a knock of 25 runs off 18 balls while Rawat remained not out for 73* runs off 33 deliveries.
Owing to his knock, the eventual winners could post a massive total of 193 runs for three wickets. In return, UP started off on a poor note and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. While Priyam Garg’s knock of 54 runs in 34 balls kept the side in the chase, they eventually finished on 174 runs and fell short of 19 runs.
