Tilak Varma Slams Breathtaking 121* In Epic SMAT Battle

image-lo2t4yi4Tilak Varma in action for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2023 (AP)

Mumbai Indians’ action man Tilak Varma produced his maiden T20 century while turning up for Hyderabad in their latest Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2023 match in Jaipur. The dynamic southpaw faced just 69 deliveries in the innings, and ended up dispatching 16 of them for boundaries and four of them for elegant sixes.

Varma’s 121-run T20 epic lifted Hyderabad to a monumental 186-6 in their Group A scuffle against Baroda, where the next best score for his side turned out to be a mere 23-run effort from middle-order batter Ravi Teja.

Tilak Varma’s recent run of form at India’s premier T20 domestic event continues his prolific touch with the bat this year, one which launched with his 343-run season haul for the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2023. His IPL spectacle helped him graduate to senior level, and he celebrated the occasion by unfurling match-winning knocks in West Indies as well as during the subsequent Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Tilak Varma extends golden run with SMAT 2023 ton

Tilak Varma brought down the hammer on Baroda bowlers after arriving to the crease within the second over of the match. The 20-year-old himself consumed 69 deliveries from the remaining 19 overs of the innings to make a boundary-laden 121*.

His thunderous knock pretty much re-affirmed his meteoric rise as a potential T20 superstar for Team India, considering he displayed first signs of his 20-overs brilliance on his format debut back in 2019 itself.

Prior to his maiden T20 ton against Baroda, Tilak Varma had also notched up notable scores of 41*, 58* and 40* earlier in the 2023 SMAT season to take his tournament tally to 271 runs from just five innings.

Less than a month ago, the Hyderabad-based batsman found himself at the winner’s podium of the 2022 Asian Games T20 in Hangzhou. Following his international and domestic success, one can expect Varma to start out as a regular feature in India’s T20I set-up in their road towards next year’s T20 World Cup 2024.