Meerut Mavericks outplay Kanpur Superstars by 4 runs

Kanpur: Spinner Yash Garg's fine bowling (3 for 15 in two overs) helped Meerut Mavericks humble Kanpur Superstars by 4 runs in their sixth tie of UP T-20 league held at Green park on Friday.Meerut Mavericks, putting into bat, scored 2 for 103 runs in 9 overs.Kanpur Superstars got a target of 79 runs in 6 overs under Duckworth Lewis system but they failed to achieve the target by five runs as they could collect 74 runs for the loss of 6 wickets. Kanpur’s dream to get a berth in the last four berths is almost shattered as they have played 7 matches so far and have just four points.Sameer and Saurabh gave a flying start scoring 30 runs in the first two overs. Thereafter their innings was eclipsed and were reduced to 49 for 4. The outgoing batsmen were Saurabh, Sandeep, Akshadeep and Vishal. Akshadeep and Vishal both fell to spinner Yash Garg for 4 and 0 respectively. Kartik Tyagi scalped dangerous Sameer Rizvi when he mistimed a stroke and wicket-keeper Shoaib Siddiqui held a catch in the fifth over. He contributed 38 runs in 15 balls hitting 4 boundaries and 3 sixes. Kanpur team required 16 runs in the last over and six in the last ball but Yash Garg tamed Aqib khan and Vineet Panwar and conceded 12 runs and bagged the wicket of Rahul Rajpal who was caught at deep by Madhav Kaushik for 9. Yash was later declared as man of the match.Earlier, due to late seasonal rain, the match referee decided to reduce the overs and fixed 11 overs each innings. Meerut Mavericks, after being invited to bat, scored 2 for 103 in 9 overs when rains interrupted the match and the game was suspended for some time. Rituraj and Swastik began the innings and it was bad luck of Chikara who had scored three consecutive centuries that he was adjudged run out after scoring 10 runs.Madhav Kaushik could not stay in the middle for a long time as Kartikeya Yadav caught him at deep square leg of J Dhankar. He could contribute 10 runs. Both added 34 runs for the second wicket. Rinku Singh geared up the run rate as both attacked rival bowlers and hit 15 runs in 8th and 12 runs in 9th over. At this juncture, rains started and the match was stopped. The groundsmen covered the wicket. The match resumed after 30 minutes.Score boardMeerut Mavericks-Rituraj Sharma no 47, Swastik Chikara run out 17, Madhav Kaushik c Kartik Yadav b J Dhankar 10, Rinku Singh not out 22, Extras -7, Total-2 for 103 in 9 oversBowling-Aqib Khan 2-0-23-0, Vineet Panwar 2-0-21-0, Rishabh Rajput 2-0-26-0, Jasmer Dhankar 2-0-23-1, Kartikeya Yadav 1-0-9-0.Kanpur Superstars-Sameer Rizvi c Shoaib Siddiqui b Kartik Tyagi 38, Saurabh b Vishal Chaudhary 13, Sandeep Tomar run out 2, Akshadeep Nath c Rituraj b Yash 4, Vishal c and b Yash 0, Rahul Rajpal c Kaushik b Yash 9, Aqib Khan not out 9,Vineet Panwar no 5, Extras 2 Total-6 for 74 (6 overs).Bowler-Purnank Tyagi 1-0-15-0, Kartik Tyagi 2-0-28-1Vishal Chaudhary 1-0-15-1Yash Garg 2-0-15-3