LUCKNOW, Dec. 5 -- Young batter Sameer Rizvi has always been quite successful in the white-ball cricket, especially in the shortest format of the game. His stunning batting display, which saw him scoring 500 plus runs in the second edition of the UPT20 League last year, had fetched him a place in the Chennai Super Kings for one season before he excelled for the Delhi Capitals last season in the cash-rich Indian Premier League. After scoring just nine and two respectively in the last matches against Madhya Pradesh and Hyderabad, right-hander Rizvi, 21, on Thursday struck his season's best knock to guide former champions Uttar Pradesh score a facile 40-run win over Chandigarh to keep their hopes alive for a knockout berth in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). It was a big win especially after losing back-to-back matches in the last two encounters in Elite Group B. Rizvi struck 70 in 42 balls with the help of six boundaries and three sixes to help Uttar Pradesh post a challenging 212/7 after being sent to bat first at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Opener and Delhi-boy Madhav Kaushik too smashed his season's best 67 in 41 balls with the help of three boundaries and two sixes. Siddharth Yadav (28, 12b, 3x4, 2x6) and Rinku Singh (24, 10b, 2x4, 2x6) also made useful contributions to help Uttar Pradesh post their highest total of the season so far. It was a bad start for Uttar Pradesh when they lost in form opener Aryan Juyal on duck in the very first over. But thereafter, Kaushik and Yadav steadied the innings, stitching together 54 runs for the second wicket. Even after losing Yadav, who was run out, in the sixth over, Kaushik and Rizvi didn't let Chandigarh bowlers dictate terms and kept stroking the ball nicely all around the ground. First, Kaushik and Rizvi added 86 runs for the third wicket, and then Rizvi and Singh collected 40 runs for the fourth wicket. In reply, Chandigarh batters, despite playing well in the middle overs, never posed any threat to Uttar Pradesh's total. They lost Nehal Pajni (0) and captain Arjun Azad (1) within the third over, but thereafter opener Manan Vohra and keeper-batter Nikhil Thakur added 81 runs for the third wicket. But once the two departed, the wickets started falling on regular intervals. While Vohra struck 35-ball 61 with the help of six boundaries and three sixes, Thakur scored 32 in 28 balls laced with four boundaries. Amrit Lubana remained unbeaten on 30, which came off 23 balls with the help of three boundaries and a six. Team India discarded pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who looked struggling in previous matches with just four wickets in as many matches, showed his might on Thursday, bagging 3/23 at 5.75, whereas leg spinner Vipraj Nigam finished with 2/34. Shivam Mavi, Kartik Tyagi and Prashant Veer shared three wickets between them. Uttar Pradesh now play Maharashtra on Saturday in their penultimate league match, which is a day-night tie, before playing their last league match against Bihar on Monday....