GL vs KR

That brings us to the end of our coverage for this encounter. We have the 2nd game of the day coming up in a few minutes. Switch tabs to follow the game but for now this is myself (Arya Sekhar Chakraborty) signing off also on behalf of my fellow commentator and good mate Bidipto. Cheers!

Abhishek Goswami (Gorakhpur Lions captain): Well actually very happy that we could win a game. Dhruv batted brilliantly and if we could have had this combination for a long time, the result would have been different. Dhruv wasn't available at the start of the tournament. We were hoping that he would be available but it is what it is.

Dhruv Jurel has been adjudged the Player of the Match! Here is what he has to say.

Dhruv: We ended the tournament on a high, but that was just about it for us in this tournament. Anyway, we took a lot of learnings from this campaign. I think everything matters with what a player does on the field and what he does for the team. I always try to play for the team no matter what. We are looking for the positives only from this competition so that we can only get better. 

Prince Yadav (Kashi Rudras captain): We wanted to test our bench strength today and I think that we haven't been disappointed. Tomorrow, we will try to play out best eleven so that the momentum stays built for the semi-finals. 

Gorakhpur Lions won by 18 runs

Dhruv Jurel 90(49) | Abdul Rehman 3/39(4)
Karan Sharma 80(45) | Deepanshu Yadav 2/43(4)

Depsite a sensational knock from Karan Sharma, the Kashi Rudras eventually fell well short of the stiff target of 202, handing the Gorakhpur Lions a run victory. The Lion's were playing for pride and they managed to finish the campaign in style. The opening duo of Karan Sharma and Aranav Baliyan started off brilliantly, finding the boundaries at regular intervals during the powerplay. 

Karan in particular smashed some delightful blows to get their side off to a flying start. The wicket of Baliyan came just before the end of the powerplay. Sachin Singh Bisen was the next man and he couldn't quite get the boundaries at the rate that the Kashi Rudras needed. Shivam Bansal supported Karan as he went berserk after completing his half-century. 

It looked like he would take his side over the finish line. It was Abdul Rehman who made the much-needed breakthrough and that almost sealed the game for the Lions. They had enough firepower to get over the line but kept losing wickets and lost their way in the end. 

Prince Yadav played a good hand, scoring 30 off 17 deliveries but that wasn't enough to take them over the finish line. Abdul Rehman was the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets to his name while Shivam Sharma and Vijay Kumar bagged a wicket each.

19.6 Abdul Rehman-VI to Kamil Khan, GORAKHPUR LIONS GET A WIN OFF THEIR FINAL MATCH! Full and slow outside off-stump. Driven off the back foot down to long-off for only a single here! 

19.5 Abdul Rehman-VI to Kirtivardhan Upadhyay, good length ball on off-stump. Tapped down to point off the back foot with the open bat face for a single. 

19.4 Abdul Rehman-VI to Prince Yadav, CAUGHT AND BOWLED! Full and slowed down considerably around off-stump. Prince went for a massive swing of the blade clearing the front leg. All he did was top edge it to the short extra cover region. Abdul came under it, kept his eyes on the ball and took a fine return catch!

Prince Yadav c&b Abdul Rehman 30 (18b, 2x4, 2x6) 

19.3 Abdul Rehman-VI to Prince Yadav, good length slower ball on off-stump. Hoisted off the cue end of the blade off the back foot just beyond the reach of square-leg for a brace. 

19.2 Abdul Rehman-VI to Prince Yadav, SIX RUNS! Length ball on off-stump. Hoicked off the back foot with the left leg cleared for a lot of height and distance over long-on! 

That's the penultimate over done and dusted and the Gorakhpur Lions are just a few moments away from a well deserved victory. That won't have a bearing on the eventual outcome of the tournament but they should feel proud as a side with their performance today. 

18.6 Vijay Kumar to Kamil Khan, OH! FOUR OFF A MISFIELD! Short around off-stump. Pushed off the back foot with good timing on it, to backward point. But the fielder let it through his hands to give away a boundary in the end! 

18.5 Vijay Kumar to Prince Yadav, yorker outside off-stump. Slapped along the ground off the thick outside half of the bat for a single to deep cover.