UPT20: Aaradhya Yadav shines as Lucknow Falcons beat Kanpur Superstars in last ball thriller

Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh)[India], September 4 : Lucknow Falcons emerged victorious in a last-ball thriller at a UPT20 match as they defeated the Kanpur Superstars by two wickets while chasing a mammoth 222-run target.
Fans were in for a treat at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur as over 400 runs were scored across both innings. The Lucknow Falcons pulled off a sensational run chase, riding on the back of top order brilliance of skipper Priyam Garg (54) and Harsh Tyagi (41), while Aaraadhya Yadav (50*) came in to add the final flourishes.
Invited to bat first, an astounding display of hard-hitting saw the Kanpur Superstars race through the powerplay, openers Saurabh Dubey (56) and Ansh Yadav (61) wreaked havoc on the Lucknow Falcons’ bowlers to post the highest powerplay score of the UPT20 tournament at 80/0. Although Dubey’s blitzkrieg ended in the eighth over, having hit a dazzling six fours and four sixes off just 28 balls, Sameer Rizvi (69) took the mantle and joined Ansh Yadav to sustain the onslaught. As the middle overs unfolded, Ansh Yadav reached his half-century in 33 balls and Sameer Rizvi achieved the milestone in 24 balls. At the end of 15 overs, the Kanpur Superstars had posted an astronomical 173/1. In a brief respite for the Lucknow Falcons, K Jaiswal picked up the wicket of Sameer Rizvi, while Yash Dayal came back to the attack to pick up Ansh Yadav as well, forcing the Kanpur Superstars to lose momentum. Kartikaya Jaiswal also scalped skipper Akshdeep Nath (2) and Pranjal Saini (0) in back-to-back deliveries of the 19th over. However, on the back of Sandeep Tomar the final over saw 16 runs to help the Kanpur Superstars with a formidable total of 221/5.
In response, the Lucknow Falcons flew to a powerplay score of 67/1. Undeterred by the steep target ahead of them, Aanjaneya Suryavanshi and Harsh Tyagi (46) built a terrific platform. The partnership was broken when Suryavanshi’s knock of 39 in 15 balls was halted by Ankit Rajpoot. Coming in at number three, Captain Priyam Garg (54) was in impeccable form. At the 10-over mark, the game was evenly poised with Lucknow Falcons at 114/1. With Harsh Tyagi moving into a supporting role, Priyam Garg powered ahead to reach his half-century in just 22 balls, following a 17-run over of Kanpur’s Ankit Chauhan. Soon after, the innings began to unravel, as Lucknow lost three wickets in three overs, Priyam Garg was deceived by a leg cutter from Vineet Panwar, followed by the dismissals of Kritagya Singh (2) and the well-settled Harsh Tyagi at the hands of Ankur Chauhan and Akshdeep Nath respectively.
The Lucknow Falcons were at 148/4 at the end of the 14th over. Aaradhya Yadav took the onus of steering the innings to the finish line, Hardeep Singh chipped in with a cavalier knock of 16 runs in just six balls before he was Vineet Panwar's second wicket of the night. With three overs remaining, Lucknow needed 33 runs, Aaradhya Yadav helped extract 14 runs in the 18th over. Vineet Panwar picked up his third and fourth wicket of the night in the 19th, cleaning up Vipraj Nigam (6) and Vikas Singh (5). The final over demanded 11 runs and following two dot balls, under pressure Aaradhya struck a six and was dropped twice in consecutive deliveries, scraping two runs of each of them. However, with just a run required off the last ball, Aaradhya Yadav cleared the extra cover boundary to complete his half-century and register a thrilling victory for the Lucknow Falcons.
Brief Scores: Kanpur Superstars: 221/5 in 20 overs (Sameer Rizvi 69, Ansh Yadav 61, Saurabh Dubey 56, Kartikeya Jaiswal 3/36, Yash Dayal 2/28) vs Lucknow Falcons: 222/8 in 20 overs (Priyam Garg 54, Aaradhya Yadav 50, Harsh Tyagi 46, Aanjaneya Suryavanshi 39, Vineet Panwar 4/28, Ansh Yadav 1/15, Ankur Chauhan 1/41, Ankit Rajpoot 1/48).