Lucknow: Even though the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association has kept the tickets of Uttar Pradesh Premier League at a very low price of Rs 49, the audience is taking time to head to the stadium. On the first day, there may have been a little crowd in the presence of Bollywood stars. But on the day of Janmashtami, people were less in number at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium.
In the first match being played on Monday, Aryan Juyal of Gorakhpur Lions hit a brilliant century. Thanks to the brilliant half-century of Indian team’s wicketkeeper batsman and Gorakhpur resident Dhruv Jurel, Gorakhpur Lions batted first and scored 218 runs in the stipulated 20 overs.
Chasing this big target, the Noida Kings team collapsed after scoring just 127 runs in 17 overs. Most of the batsmen from the team could not even cross the double-digit mark. Ultimately, Noida had to face defeat by a huge margin of 91 runs against Gorakhpur.
Earlier, Gorakhpur may have lost its first wicket in the first over in this match against Noida Kings. But after this their batting was excellent. Aryan and Dhruv Jurel batted fiercely from the team’s side and put their team in a strong position.
The presence of former Indian international cricketer Piyush Chawla also could not have any special effect for Noida. It is a different matter that Piyush Chawla got Abhishek Goswami out LBW in his very first over.
During the Uttar Pradesh Premier League, the enthusiasm of the Indian Premier League is not seen in Lucknow at all. Last year when this competition was played in Green Park, Kanpur, there was a huge crowd of spectators.
Due to the absence of international matches in Kanpur, people there liked this league a lot. But there was not so much crowd in Lucknow. On the second day of Ekana Stadium, every stand was seen empty. Only those people were in the field who were associated with the arrangements here. Only empty chairs were seen in the rest of the ground.
While batting first against Noida, Gorakhpur Lions had a bad start. Their first wicket fell in the very first over. But after this Gorakhpur did not look back. Brilliant batting continued continuously. The team scored 218 runs at the end of 20 overs. They lost only two wickets. Aryan Juyal played a stormy century innings of 104 runs with the help of 10 fours and 5 sixes in 54 balls. Dhruv Jurel scored 70 runs in 46 balls.
For Gorakhpur, Ankit Rajput took two wickets for 10 runs in 2 overs, Shivam took 3 wickets for 24 runs in 4 overs and Yadav took 2 wickets for 23 runs in 2 overs. While Saurabh also took two wickets for 19 runs in 3 overs. Sharim was the top scorer for Noida, who played an innings of 56 runs in 25 balls. Hannan scored 24 and captain Nitish Rana scored 20 runs.
