Bhubaneswar: Mohammad Sharim continued his sensational form to help Nexage Hyderabad seal a semi-final berth in the Tillo T20 Cup 2026 on Monday, at the Hanuman Jew Stadium in Tillo. He raced to his fifty off just nine balls to equal the record set by Dipendra Singh Airee, who achieved the feat against Mongolia during the 2023 Asian Games.
Sharim arrived at the crease in the 16th over when Hyderabad was at 162/4. The right-hander smashed three back-to-back sixes in his first three deliveries off Sundaram Dubey to set the tone. He then hit five consecutive sixes against Gunjan Mudgal in the following over to continue the onslaught. A six in the 18th over brought up his half-century in just nine balls.
Earlier, JP Sports Noida won the toss and opted to bowl first, a decision that resulted in absolute carnage. Hyderabad openers Rahul Rajpal (32) and Nishant Yadav stitched together a 42-run opening stand in less than three overs. Yadav joined hands with Irshad (43) to continue the team's momentum. Despite the departure of captain Noman Manzoor (8) and Fahim Naaz (17), Yadav played a fluent knock of 61 off 41 balls and maintained his consistency.
Sharim later unleashed a brutal assault, smashing 80 off just 18 balls with 13 sixes at a staggering strike rate of 444.44. His innings eventually came to an end in the final over when Mudgal claimed his wicket. Riding on Sharim’s explosive knock, Hyderabad posted a massive total of 273. Pravin Yadav was the most effective bowler for Noida with figures of 2/25 in three overs.
In response, Noida openers Vinay Upadhyay (17) and Kishan Gupta (17) failed to convert their starts. Mudgal (24) and skipper Meraj Khan (23) added some late runs to push the total to 128. Sharim, Ayush Ray, and Saurabh Singh picked up two wickets each for Hyderabad as they sealed a commanding 145-run victory.
With this win, Hyderabad climbed to the top of the points table with two wins from three matches and a net run rate of +2.831. JP Sports Noida, after suffering their second defeat, are now out of contention for a semi-final spot. Meanwhile, in the first game of the day, A&S Kolkata secured a dominant victory over Lightning Legends. Ankit Narwal’s 40 helped Legends post a total of 135. However, opener Dipanshu Upadhyay top-scored with a blistering 48* off just 16 balls as Kolkata completed the chase in under 10 overs.
The result confirmed Kolkata’s qualification for the semi-finals while eliminating the Legends from the tournament. Kolkata currently sit second on the points table with two wins in three matches and a net run rate of +2.007.
