Ayush Badoni produced a dominant display with bat in hand as he led Delhi to a five-wicket win over Himachal Pradesh in a Group C, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 encounter on Sunday, December 1.

Captain of the Delhi team, Badoni smashed a 39-ball 70 and helped his team score 149/5 to comfortably win the game with five wickets and 31 balls to spare.

Tasked with chasing a target of 146 by Himachal Pradesh, Badoni made an early entry to the crease after Delhi opener Priyansh Arya was dismissed off the second ball of the innings for a duck.

As a result, Badoni made his way down to the middle in what was just the third ball of the run chase before playing a captain’s knock to guide Delhi to a convincing victory.

The hard-hitting right-handed batter wasted little time to get going and made batting look easy as he forged a 102-run partnership with Yash Dhull and put Delhi in command of the match.

Badoni and Dhull’s 102-run stand came off 60 balls and put Delhi firmly in control of the game. While both batters contributed to the partnership, Badoni was quite clearly more of the aggressor and he continued to attack the bowlers after Dhull was dismissed for 47 in the 11th over with score reading 102/2.

Badoni eventually succumbed to a delivery from Mayank Dagar in the 13th over. His 39-ball 70 was scored at an impressive strike rate of 179.48 and his knock was laced with eight fours as well as three maximums.

Badoni’s fifty was his first in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 and it also earned him the Player of the Match award as Delhi won by five wickets to make it five wins from five and top the Group C standings of the ongoing 20-over tournament with 20 points.

Interestingly, another LSG star who has been at the heart of Delhi’s solid performances in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 is Himmat Singh, who we bought for ₹30 lakh on Day 2 of the IPL 2025 Mega Auction.

He managed to make six runs against Himachal Pradesh on Sunday but was key to Delhi’s first two wins in the ongoing T20 tournament.

He made an unbeaten 77 off 34 balls against Uttar Pradesh to help Delhi win their tournament opener and then backed it up with a Player of the Match performance that saw him hit an unbeaten 46-ball 71 as Delhi defeated Jammu & Kashmir by 35 runs.

Both Ayush Badoni and Himmat Singh will be looking to make the most of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 and find form in the buildup to the much-awaited IPL 2025 season.