Meerut Mavericks continue winning streak with a big win
LUCKNOW, Aug. 28 -- Both IPL stars Bhuvenshwar Kumar and Vipraj Nigam conceded 29 runs each in their last overs against defending champions Meerut Mavericks, who notched up a convincing 93 runs wins over local outfits Lucknow Falcons to register their fourth win in the UPTwenty20 League, at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Wednesday.
The win helped Meerut Mavericks consolidate their second spot in the points table with eight points to their name. The Falcons remain on six points from seven matches. It was never going to be easy for the Lucknow Falcons once Meerut Mavericks had piled on 233/4 from their 20 overs and they never got going in their chase, getting bowled out for 140.
The Mavericks batters set the base with three of them getting to fifties before Zeeshan Ansari and Kartik Tyagi grabbed a three-for apiece to lead a fine bowling showing from Meerut.
It rained boundaries during the Meerut Mavericks innings as the Rinku Singh-led side powered to the second highest total of the competition. Electing to bat first in some extremely draining conditions, the Mavericks batters hit a joint total of 15 fours and a whopping 17 sixes in their innings, propelling the side to a near impregnable score against the hapless Lucknow Falcons attack.
What was fascinating about the Meerut Mavericks innings was they found a batter at nearly every stage to find the fence. It started with Swastik Chikara, who opened the innings for them and blazed to a 31-ball 55. While the Meerut Mavericks lost Akshat Dubey and Madhav Kaushik cheaply at the other end, it was Chikara's batting that kept them going at eight an over throughout the time he was at the crease.
When Chikara was dismissed, caught trying to slog Vipraj Nigam over the top, Rinku Singh joined Rituraj Sharma to the crease and immediately got going. In fact, in that very over, Rinku stepped out and slammed Vipraj for a six; the first of his four.
He peppered the bowling with three fours to go with it while also showing superb sense in timing the ball to the outfield and collecting twos. At the other end, Rituraj had earlier found it difficult to time the ball, using 24 balls to get to 26 but he got going just prior to Rinku's dismissal.
Abhinandan Singh's third over, which was the 17th of the innings, went for 21 - 19 of which came to Rituraj - and he continued the mayhem in the 19th by bludgeoning a whopping 29 off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Bhuvneshwar, who had conceded four from his first two overs, finished with figures of 1/49 from his four.
Ritwik Vats, who had come in at the fall of Rinku's wicket, took his helmet off for the final over and proceeded to slam three sixes over the bowler Vipraj Nigam's head. This turned out to be another 29-run over as the Mavericks went from 131 after 15 to 233 in 20.
The only way Lucknow had a chance to stay in the chase was if they got off to a solid start in their powerplay. Samarth Singh tried to get going with a couple of boundaries of the second over but Vijay Kumar had the last laugh, pegging his stumps back in that very over.
From there onward, run-scoring began to get difficult for the Lucknow Falcons as they finished 37/1 after six. Forced by the mounting rate to push the gas to the pedal, Lucknow Falcons lost a wicket in each of the following three overs after the powerplay - Zeeshan bagging a stumping off a wide ball and then getting Shoaib Siddiqui bowled and Kartik Tyagi's slower ball sending Kritagya Singh back.
A 48-run stand for the fifth wicket between Mohammad Saif and Sameer Choudhary delayed the inevitable. Once Saif was dismissed, caught off Yash Garg, there was no looking back as they lost their last five wickets for the addition of a mere 22 runs.
In the second match of the day, Noida Super Kings batters, including openers Shivam Chaudhary (46, 35b, 4x4, 2x6), Anivesh Choudhary (63, 40b, 5x4, 4x6), Ravi Singh (68*, 24b, 3x4, 7x6) and skipper Prashant Veer (58*, 21b, 6x4, 4x6) hammered Gorakhpur Lions bowlers like anything to score 248/2-tournament's highest total so far.
In reply, Gorakhpur Lions could make 222/8 in 20 overs, thus conceding a defeat by 26 runs.
Kanpur Superstars vs Lucknow Falcons at 3.00 p.m.; Noida Super Kings vs Kashi Rudras at 7.30 a.m....
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