The victory not only ended Meerut’s winning run but also sealed Noida’s place in the playoffs. Kanpur: With a five-wicket haul by left-arm spinner Shiva Singh , including a hat-trick, the Noida Super Kings stunned unbeaten Meerut Mavericks by five wickets in a rain-hit, five-over-a-side thriller at Green Park Stadium on Sunday night.
Noida finished the league stage with 10 points from 10 matches, with five wins and five defeats, and became the third team after Meerut Mavericks and Lucknow Falcons to qualify for the playoffs. The match was first reduced to 15 overs a side, but Meerut skipper Divyansh Joshi’s decision to bat first was followed by another bout of heavy rain after just two deliveries, with five runs on the board. He finished with extraordinary figures of 5/6 as Meerut could manage only 33/7 in their five overs.
They will now feature in the Eliminator. Rain played a major role in the second match of the day. After Lucknow Falcons had thrashed Gorakhpur Lions in the opening game, moderate showers delayed the start of the Meerut-Noida clash. Ground staff worked tirelessly to get the match underway and eventually, the contest was reduced to a five-over shootout. The spinner ripped through the Meerut middle order, claiming three wickets in successive deliveries spread across two overs to complete the league’s second-ever hat-trick. Singh’s feat was only the second hat-trick in UP T20 League history, after Kartik Tyagi, and the first of the current season.