The IPL mega auction witnessed a lot of money being splurged by 10 franchises on star players. However, by the time the auction ended, we saw teams picking domestic and some unknown players for their base price of Rs 30 lakh. Suryansh Shedge was one such player who was selected for the minimum base price by Punjab Kings and not many bothered to know about him. But today, he is one of the main reasons why Mumbai are alive and in the semifinals of the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the premier T20 tournament in domestic cricket in India.
Mumbai were chasing 222 runs against Vidarbha in the quarterfinal at the KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur and despite, skipper Ajinkya Rahane's 84-run knock off 44 deliveries, they needed 60 runs off the last four overs. With the likes of Shreyas Iyer, and Suryakumar Yadav already dismissed, and Shivam Dube struggling to time the ball, the target seemed out of reach for Mumbai.
However, Suryansh had other ideas as he took the attack to Mandar Mahale smashing him for three sixes and a four in the 17th over to bring the target down to 36 runs off three overs. Dube also realised his talent soon and began timing the ball to smash multiple sixes in the next over.
With a plethora of sixes coming at the right time courtesy of Shedge, Mumbai managed to gun down the massive target of 222 runs with four balls in hand. Fittingly, Suryansh, 21, finished the match with six to remain unbeaten unbeaten on 36 off just 12 balls with four sixes and a solitary four at a strike rate of 300.
Shedge had also smashed an unbeaten 30 off just eight balls at a strike rate of 375 against Andhra in the group clash helping his side chase down a target of 230 runs. Going by his current form, Punjab Kings seem to have taken the correct call by picking him in the auction and the youngster might even end up making his IPL debut next year.
