On September 1, 2024, at Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, Sameer Rizvi put up a magnificent display for the Kanpur Superstars in their 15th UP T20 (Uttar Pradesh T20) League match against the Gorakhpur Lions.
The Kanpur Superstars were struggling at 29-2 after 3.5 overs with Rizvi coming in at No. 4 and chasing a target of 178 runs. Being dismissed for less than half of his 50 runs, Adarsh Singh had scored 41 off 29 balls when the two formed an important partnership for the third wicket which contributed 63 runs in just 48 deliveries.
Rizvi showed resilience even as his teammates continued to fall prey to wickets taken from other end but he chose to do so with attacking strokes so as to keep his side within touching distance of victory. A six completed right-hander’s fifty which he reached within just 33 balls.
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Sameer Rizvi was at the crease as Kanpur was needing 16 runs in the last over. Ball one was a dot and ball two Rizvi hit for a six over the boundary ropes. However he was out on ball three without being able to lead his team to victory. Rizvi scored 87 off 50 balls including three fours and eight sixes. The last ball was eventually a dot after Kanpur needed four from it; therefore they lost by three runs.
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The toss was won by Gorakhpur Lions and they chose to bat first. Yashu Pradhan and Anivesh Choudhary, the opening batsmen, put up a good foundation by adding 56 runs together. Apart from Siddharth Sarvan Yadav who scored valuable 39 runs off 32 balls, Abhishek Goswami then gave the total some momentum as he struck 51 runs off 27 balls with five boundaries as well as three sixes.
In their 20 overs, the Lions scored 177-7. For Kanpur, two wickets each were taken by Mohsin Khan, Vineet Panwar, and Mukesh Kumar. In spite of Sameer Rizvi’s heroic effort, Gorakhpur held on and won by a slim margin of just three runs.
