New Delhi: Sameer Rizvi’s batting talent was never in doubt, he won the Orange Cap by playing an innings of 87 runs against Gorakhpur. Even after this innings, his team could not win the match and his team Kanpur Superstars had to face defeat by three runs against Gorakhpur Lions at Atal Bihari Bajpai Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
Chasing 178 runs to win, Rizvi kept hitting boundaries at every situation but failed to get much support from the other end. The match reached such a thrilling point that in the end when 10 runs were needed in four balls, Rizvi was feeling tired and Abdul Rehman got him out near the long-on fielder.
After that, Superstars needed nine runs on the last ball. Then bowler Rehman lost his rhythm. He messed up by throwing five wides one after the other. The team needed four runs to win on the last ball. After that, he did not let the batsman score the required runs on the last ball. Due to which Sameer Rizvi’s Kanpur Superstars had to face defeat.
The Lions registered their second win in the tournament. Both teams’ fortunes fluctuated during the chase. Ankit Rajput gave away 10 runs after giving six runs in the wides in the very first over, but Vijay Yadav’s excellent catch in the fourth over restricted the Superstars to 29/2.
Yadav also took a brilliant catch under pressure at long-on to dismiss Rizvi, which was one of the four catches taken by him in the innings. Earlier, Rizvi looked to be on course for the target with a total of eight sixes in his innings. The Lions’ spinners pulled the contest back in their favour between the ninth and 11th overs, in which they conceded just 13 runs and took wickets at the other end, despite Rizvi being at the crease.
The 15th over of the innings saw a good run-out and 18 runs were scored. The required run rate dropped to 10.5 and when Shivam Sharma smashed sixes in the 17th over, Kanpur needed 31 runs from the final three overs. Rajput’s 19th changed the game again when he was dismissed for just five, but when Rizvi was caught by Rehman in the 20th, the match was in Kanpur’s bag.
Earlier, when Gorakhpur captain Akshdeep Nath won the toss and decided to bat first, he said he wanted a score in excess of 180 on a pitch where a target of 156 was achieved in 11 overs in the previous game. It looked like they had a chance to score a lot more when their score read 165/3 at the end of the 17th. Mohsin Khan and Vineet Panwar combined to push the Lions back.
Mohsin gave away eight runs in the 18th over and took two wickets for just two runs in the final over. At one stage, he was on a hat-trick. Panwar did something similar in the 19th over, giving away two runs and taking two wickets to restrict Gorakhpur to a score that looked a little low on this pitch at that stage.
Gorakhpur got off to a good start through Yashu Pradhan and Anivesh Chaudhary before Abhishek Goswami took over. The third over bowled by Mohsin yielded 16 runs, eight of which were given byes by Superstars wicketkeeper Shoaib Siddiqui.
Yashu then hit three fours in a 20-run over in the fifth over. While both the openers were dismissed in the last over of the powerplay, Goswami quickly took charge by hitting sixes off two balls from Mukesh Kumar. Goswami completed his 50 and was dismissed soon after, but a couple of sixes in the 15th over bowled by Shubham Mishra had made the track look better for the Lions. They managed to add just 36 runs in the final five overs but it proved to be enough in the end.
