Preview, UPT20 | Meerut Mavericks enter knockouts in high spirits as table-toppers Kashi Rudras await

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Rinku Singh has struck 332 runs in UPT20 2025 at a strike rate of nearly 180 for the Meerut Mavericks

Rinku Singh's Meerut Mavericks are set to take on Kashi Rudras in Qualifier 1 of the UPT20 League at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Wednesday. Meerut have momentum on their side as they finished the group stage with consecutive wins, while the Rudras enter the playoffs in the midst of a slump.

A runners-up medal and then a championship to follow, Meeerut Mavericks have already built up a reputation as the team to beat in the brief three-year history of the UPT20 League. In Rinku Singh, they have an experienced domestic campaigner and an IPL winner, with his exploits for the Men in Blue a solid foundation to lead a team brimming with hopefuls and unfulfilled talent. However, if there is one other outfit in the tournament that has managed to cultivate a similar aura, it is their upcoming opponents Kashi Rudras. Afterall, they were the ones that trumped Meerut in the inaugural season to lift the trophy and made the playoffs in 2024 too, albeit a loss in the Eliminator ended their campaign prematurely. This time around, the Rudras ended the round-robin stages with seven wins from 10 games, including a six-game winning run to kickstart the season in unprecedented fashion.

As for the cricketing action, both teams are stacked with strike bowlers -- the kind that can win tournaments with a clutch knockout performance. Seven of the top 10 wicket takers this season belong to either of these two sides and with the pressure running high in the playoffs, a low-scoring thriller may well be on the cards.

Form Guide

Form book often goes out of the window once the knockout stages roll around but the same cannot be said about momentum. Despite a 70% win rate in the league stage, the Rudras will enter the playoffs on the back of two consecutive defeats, including a battering at the hand of Meerut themselves. The Mavericks, meanwhile, ended the prelims on a high to secure second spot and would no doubt hope to add to their streak come September 3.

Meerut Mavericks: W W L W L

Kashi Rudras: L L W L W

MM vs KR Head-to-Head in UPT20

Meerut Mavericks have clearly had the wood over Kashi, even though the latter did register their first league win over the Rinku-led outfit earlier this season by setting 225 to chase enroute to a 91-run win. However, in the return encounter, the Mavericks flipped the tables by keeping the Rudras to 135/8 before hauling it down with seven wickets and 26 balls to spare.

MM 5 - 2 KR

Pitch and Weather

The Ekana has both black and red soil pitches on offer, with the former more spin-friendly but as the season approaches an end the red soil crumbles enough to start offering help to the slower bowlers too. Rain has been in the air too, leading to slightly damp pitches which shall only make the task more difficult for batters. The average first innings score in the tournament so far has been 175, which tentatively seems par as well for the upcoming game.

As per Accuweather, a brief shower is expected in the early stages of the game while the skies will remain overcast for the entirety of the encounter. The temperature is forecast to hover in the early 30s (degrees celsius) with significantly high levels of humidity.

Team News

With three wins in their last five games to seal a top-two spot, the Mavericks would not be looking to tamper with their winning formula. As for the Rudras, a couple of batting collapses in recent times have culminated in losses but given the same combinations had earned them six wins to start the tournament, no changes look to be in store.

Meerut Mavericks Probable XI: Swastik Chikara, Rituraj Sharma, Madhav Kaushik, Rinku Singh (c), Akshay Dubey (wk), Ritik Vats, Vijay Kumar, Yash Garg, Zeeshan Ansari, Kartik Tyagi, Ansh Dwivedi

Kashi Rudras Probable XI: Abhishek Goswami, Karan Sharma (c), Deepak Rana, Uvaish Ahmed (wk), Saksham Rai, Shubham Chaubey, Shivam Mavi, Shiva Singh, Kartik Yadav, Rishabh Rajput, Sunil Kumar, Atal Bihari-Rai