Lucknow: Noida Kings’ disastrous season in the 2024 UP T20 ended with another defeat as Kashi Rudras sealed off their fifth win of the competition. In the final group game of the tournament for both teams, the Rudras eased to a whopping 79-run victory over Noida at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
Needing to defend 169 to seal a much-needed win to qualify for the playoffs, Kashi bowled Noida out for 88 thanks to a brilliant concerted bowling performance. Earlier, Kashi Rudras did not make the greatest of starts to their batting innings, losing their first three wickets by the end of the fourth over.
The way they batted in that initial phase it looked like there was a touch of over-aggression even when the ball wasn’t coming on to the bat. Shiva Singh was the first to depart and Almas Shaukat followed suit in the very next over trying to hit it on the up.
And when a short of length ball from Shuaib was pulled straight to the deep square-leg fielder, Kashi had lost their third with just 25 on the board.
A six off the first ball of the 12th and that too against the nifty bowling of Prashant Veer turned the scoring momentum back in Kashi’s favour. 13 came from that over before Karan Sharma went for another 10 in the very next.
Yashovardhan Singh and Shivam Mavi ensured Karan’s effort wouldn’t go waste with their hitting. 46 came off the final 23 balls even after Karan was dismissed by Boby Yadav for 69.
While Boby bagged three wickets, all of which came in the death overs, he went for 40 in his four-over spell.
Noida were pegged back early in their chase with Atal Bihari Rai getting a ball to seam away from the middle stump, removing Rahul Raj’s off stump. Sunil Kumar sent the other opener, Vishal Pandey back in the very next over and while the Kings did not lose another wicket during the Powerplay.
In fact, there was a three-over period between the fifth and seventh over in which there were four dots in each of them and that led to Prince Yadav eking out the third Noida wicket.
One wicket brought a second in the very next over – Shivam Saraswat became the fourth to depart – and while a 30-run stand followed, the required rate had ballooned up to over 12 an over by then.
Aditya Sharma’s wicket in the 13th over was the beginning of Noida’s capitulation who were bowled out for 88 soon after, with one batter short because of an injury.
Brief scores: Kashi Rudras 167/6 in 20 overs (Karan Sharma 69, Prince Yadav 36; Boby Yadav 3-40, Shuaib 2-19) beat Noida Kings 88 all out in 18 overs (Prashant Veer 21, Shivam Saraswat 20; Sunil Kumar 3-21, Atal Bihari Rai 2-10) by 79 runs.
–IANS