SMAT 2021 | Motera among five venues to host Elite group; Chennai will host plate group games

After BCCI’s confirmation earlier that the domestic T20 competition Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy would start in January, the cricketing board has in an email reported by Cricbuzz, confirmed Motera to be one of the five venues to host Elite group games. The venue, which is hyped to have an MCG-like capacity would host Group C games, with Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Baroda and Uttarakhand in the group. 

On the other hand, holders Karnataka would play at home, in Bangalore alongside Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Railways and Tripura in Group A. Meanwhile, Group B would be hosted at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, with Odisha, Bengal, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Hyderabad in a cracking group. 

Group D and E would be hosted respectively in Indore and Mumbai, with the rest of the Elite teams - Services, Saurashtra, Vidarbha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Goa forming Group D. Group E, meanwhile, would be a clash between Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala and Puducherry in Mumbai.

Chennai will, however, host the plate games with Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh completing the groups for the elite T20 competition. 

Further, Motera would serve as the venue for all the knockout games, that begins on January 26, with the final on January 31. However, ahead of the schedule, all teams must complete the mandatory COVID-19 tests before commencing the practice from January 8. After arrival for the knockout rounds, the teams would have to undergo two more COVID-19 tests before the start of the crucial fixtures.