UP T20: All-round Grag, Ansari help Meerut Mavericks seal fourth win

Lucknow, Aug 31 (IANS) Meerut Mavericks remained perched on the top of the points as they sealed their fourth win in as many games in the UP T20 2024. Handicapped by the loss of four players to the Duleep Trophy, the star-starved Gorakhpur Lions struggled against the web woven by the spinning duo Yash Garg and Zeeshan Ansari.

The pair finished with combined figures of 6/31 from eight as the Mavericks put the squeeze on their opponents once the field restrictions were lifted.

In the end, Gorakhpur lost wickets at regular intervals in a bid to keep up with the mounting required rate and were restricted to a mere 116.

The Lions looked to have gotten off to a decent start, chipping away at the target in the Powerplay. While they lost Yashu in the fifth over, they ended the first six overs at 45/1 having built a solid foundation by the looks of things.

It was at this stage that the Mavericks pulled things back through Garg and Ansari.

Garg conceded five in his first and once Vishal Chaudhary and Ansari had given away just nine from the next two and pulled the asking rate up, he came back with one of the overs of the tournament so far.

He first got Siddharth Sarvan Yadav caught off the first ball of his second over. Two balls later, Garg trapped Amit Pacchra lbw and finished the over as a maiden.

With half the Lions side sent back to the pavilion and the asking rate having risen to nearly 13 an over, they needed their captain Akshdeep Nath to play a blinder.

Neither him, nor the well-set Shivam Sharma did anything of note and with Ansari also picking up a third, the Gorakhpur side were never in the hunt. Yogendra Doyla and Vijay Kumar bagged the last two wickets to complete the last rites as they completed a whopping 48-run win.

Earlier, Meerut did not have the greatest of starts after being inserted in to bat.

Swastik Chikara fell for a duck to an Ankit Rajpoor bouncer and the other opener Aakshaye Dubey only managed to crawl to eight before getting out in the final over of the Powerplay.

The situation would have been even direr had it not been for Madhav Kaushik’s spanking display.

Kaushik, who had been one of the standouts in Meerut’s previous win as well, slammed three sixes and five fours in his 28-ball 47. Meerut’s score of 36/2 after six overs was possible because of his dazzling start, with only nine runs having come off 19 balls at the other end during the Powerplay.

Things improved drastically for Meerut when Kaushik hit a couple of sixes in the seventh over and then with Rituraj Sharma, took 14 runs off the next one bowled by Shivam Sharma.

When Vijay Yadav was welcomed to the bowling crease with a four by Kaushik, the momentum looked to have completely shifted but the bowler soon had the last laugh. Kaushik, in the mood to go after anything loose, swept a wide ball down the throat of the short fine-leg fielder and a quick-fire 35-run stand was broken.

Rituraj followed him in the very next over, pulling a short but turning ball from Shivam Sharma to the deep fielder.

All eyes were on Rinku Sharma to bail his side out of trouble but only two overs later, he was dismissed for the very first time in the tournament. Again, it was the sweep shot that proved to be the batter’s shortcoming, the shot falling in the safe hands of Abdul Rahman – his third catch of the game.

Meerut were 83/5 in the 12th over at this stage and looked to be in a danger of falling away to a below-par score.

But not for nothing have Meerut been so successful this season so far. Players have put their hands up when the going has been tough and it was the turn of Uvais Ahmed and Yash Garg to do that this time.

A couple of watchful overs later, Uvais slammed left arm unorthodox bowler Munindra Maurya to the sword with two sixes. Vaibhav Choudhary was then taken for 15 more in the 17th, the bowler unable to pitch the ball on more than one occasion.

Garg, who would later bag three wickets in a dazzling all-round showing, soon joined in the fun with a 16-run over in the 19th and they rounded things off with a score not too dissimilar from their previous game.

Despite the loss of Rinku, the Mavericks had scored 68 from the final six overs.

Brief Scores: Meerut Mavericks 164/7 in 20 overs (Madhav Kaushik 47, Uvais Ahmad 37; Ankit Rajput 2-26, Shivam Sharma 2-24) beat Gorakhpur Lions 116 all out in 19.1 overs (Yashu Pradhan 28, Abhishek Gowami 18; Yash Garg 3-14, Zeeshan Ansari 3-17) by 48 runs.

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