Lucknow, Sep 7 (IANS): Difficult scoring pitches often make for close contests and the 26th match of the UP T20 2024 was no different as the result came off the final ball of the 40th over of this encounter at the Ekana Stadium here.

Noida Kings, who have not the kind of tournament they would like to remember, needed three off that last delivery but Boby Yadav failed to connect off a Vineet Panwar ball leaving Kanpur Superstars winners by two runs.

Panwar was the star of the show with the ball as he grabbed a wicket in his first spell and then bowled the ultimate over of the game, the 20th, in which he defended six runs. He claimed the scalp of the well-set Piyush Chawla off the first ball and then beat the bat off the sixth of that over.

This was after Kanpur had struggled to scrape to a score of 119 in their 20. Kanpur’s innings never got going bar a fighting effort from the Orange Cap holder and captain Sameer Rizvi.

Kunal Tyagi and Shuaib began well with just six conceded in the first two overs. While an inside edge got Shoaib Siddiqui a four and a crisp drive through the covers earned Inzamam a boundary, a wicket in the very next over pegged Kanpur back. Rizvi signalled his intentions by getting away with a four but the Superstars ended the Powerplay with just 29 on the board.

Immediately after the Power-play got over, Boby Yadav struck with the wicket of Inzamam and while he conceded 11 in his next over, Mohammad Sharim got the better of Abhishek Pandey in the 10th.

At the halfway mark, Kanpur had only 50 on the board with four batters back in the shed. Rizvi’s presence was a saving grace and he kept away at the runs even as the batters at the other end struggled to adapt to the pitch.

A 24-run stand for the fifth wicket looked to be breathing some life back into the Kanpur innings but the scoring rate left a lot to desire. Another 39 runs were added for the sixth with Rizvi getting involved in both but when the time to put the foot on the pedal came, the Superstars captain fell to a sliced shot to deep cover. Kanpur added a mere eight runs from the final 11 balls, ending on 119/7 in their stipulated 20 overs.

What followed was a fighting effort from the Kanpur bowlers who not only refused to give up but also took advantage of the Noida team’s lack of confidence from their previous results. Noida looked to have started reasonably well but rarely got away from Kanpur. At the end of the Powerplay, they were 29/2 and were then saw Harshit Sethi and Kavya Teotia add 31 for the third wicket to push them closer to the win.

At this stage, the required rate had risen a touch but was well within control, especially with two well-set batters at the crease and with Nitish Rana still waiting in the sheds.

Pankaj Kumar got Kanpur the breakthrough they needed with some quick work from the keeper Abhishek Pandey seeing the end of Teotia. Despite an 11-run over in the next, Rana fell to an attacking shot off Pankaj again and that set off a collapse from which Noida failed to fully recover.

They lost four wickets for 19 and five for 31, three of which went to Mukesh Kumar and that left Chawla and Boby with a lot of work to do in the end. They added 31 for the eighth wicket, almost taking Noida to the cusp of an unlikely win but ended up losing their seventh game of the season

Brief scores:

Kanpur Superstars 119/7 in 20 overs (Sameer Rizvi 46, Mohsin Khan 19*; Shuaib 2-14, Piyush Chawla 1-18) beat Noida Kings 117/9 in 20 overs (Harshit Sethi 30, Piyush Chawla 17; Mukesh Kumar 3-23, Vineet Panwar 2-17) by 2 runs.