Kashi Rudras edge past Mavericks to enter final | Lucknow News
Lucknow: Kashi Rudras overcame a stiff challenge from Meerut Mavericks in a nail-biting qualifier to become the first team to book a berth in the UPT20 League final, edging past the Mavericks by five runs at Ekana Stadium on Wednesday.Mavericks will get another chance, but without their skipper Rinku Singh, who will be on national duty, when they face the winner of the Eliminator, Lucknow Falcons, on Thursday. Earlier, Falcons defeated Gorakhpur Lions by 23 runs in the first eliminator. Batting first, Rudras got off to a flying start as openers Abhishek Goswami (27) and Karan Sharma (43) smashed 66 runs off just 40 balls. Uvais Ahmed (28) and Saksham (22) also chipped in with handy knocks to lift the total to 166/8. In reply, Mavericks lost Akshay Dubey in the very first over. Swastik Chikara (25) and Rituraj Sharma steadied the innings, taking the total to 79 in 11 overs before Swastik was run out. Rituraj (65) departed soon after. Madhav Kaushik failed to impress, managing just 10 runs off 15 balls. Then came Rinku Singh, who blasted 40 off 23 deliveries with three boundaries and two sixes. But his valiant effort went in vain as after he was holed out by Kartik Yadav off Shivam Mavi, the Mavericks’ chase collapsed. For Rudras, Mavi returned figures of 2/4, while Atal Bihari, Karan Sharma, Sunil Singh, and Shiva Singh claimed one wicket each.Meanwhile, a consolidated batting effort helped Falcons post a challenging 170/7, with Abhay Pratap (33), Ansh Yadav (28), Mohd Saif (32), Sameer Chaudhary (21), and Satyam Pandey (24) making valuable contributions. In reply, Lions’ batters struggled to clear the ropes and could only manage 147/8 in 20 overs. Siddharth Yadav (50) and Nishant Kushwaha (34) put up some resistance but at a slow strike rate. Navneet Kumar was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets, while skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Akshu Bajwa claimed two scalps apiece.
