How Delhi scripted history to make use of an 'impact player' in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

India's domestic cricket season got underway with Duleep Trophy last month and now the focus switches to T20 competition with the league stage of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy getting underway on Tuesday. However, the major talking point of the competition is the 'Impact Player' rule which came into effect on Day 1 of the competition. Delhi became the first team to use the tactical substitution in their Elite Group B fixture on Tuesday.

SMAT 2022: Hrithik Shokeen makes history against Manipur

Delhi brought in Hrithik Shokeen as their 'Impact Player' during the SMAT 2022 match against Manipur. Shokeen replaced opener Hiten Dalal and made an impact in the match with a spell of 2/13 from his three overs. Besides Delhi, the other teams who used the substitute rule were Tamil Nadu who used Hari Nishaanth to replace fast bowler T Natarajan in their match against Chhattisgarh. Karnataka used allrounder Shreyas Gopal for opener Devdutt Padikkal in their first match against Maharashtra.

How does the BCCI Impact player rule work?

As per the rules, teams are supposed to list four substitutes along with the starting XI at the toss. One of these four players can then replace any member of the starting XI before the end of the 14th over of either innings. The impact player will be allowed to bowl his full quota of four overs and may also bat at any point in the innings, but only after the end of the over in progress. In case the number of overs in a match has been reduced to 10 overs per side due to any given reason, the impact player rule will not be applied. The impact player rule was first introduced in cricket by Cricket Australia (CA) in their domestic Big Bash League (BBL), where it is referred to as the 'X-Factor' rule.

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Day 1: Tamil Nadu stunned, Karnataka trash Maharashtra

Chhattisgarh stunned defending champions Tamil Nadu by six runs in their group E Syed Mushtaq Ali opener. Chasing 133, the reigning champions needed just nine runs from the final over. However former Andra pacer Ravi Kiran dismissed Shahrukh Khan, R Sai Kishore and Ajitesh in four balls to get his team closer to victory. Varun Chakravarthy;'s suicidal runout restricted Tamil Nadu to 126/9. The 31-year-old returned with fine figures of 4-0-26-3. Karnataka on the other hand trashed Maharashtra by 99 runs in their opening match. Maharashtra could only manage 116 for eight in response to Karnataka’s 215 for two. Hinganekar top-scored for Maharashtra with 47 off 36 balls while Kaverappa picks three for 19 for Karnataka.