KEY TAKEAWAYS:
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India star Rinku Singh’s Meerut Mavericks secured the UP T20 League 2026 title with a merciless 94-run thrashing of the Lucknow Falcons.
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Divyansh Joshi reduced the Lucknow bowling attack to dust, scoring 105 runs off just 40 deliveries.
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The Falcons’ chase completely collapsed under scoreboard pressure, folding for just 109 in a woefully one-sided finale.
Meerut Mavericks lift the 2026 UPT20 League trophy
Everyone who saw the fixture for the finals of the 2026 UPT20 expected a steady battle between the bat and the ball. Rinku Singh’s Mavericks had impressed in all their games heading into the decider, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s Falcons had also narrowly edged the Kashi Rudras by one run.
But instead of a marquee captaincy showdown between a current IPL star and an IPL legend, what followed was a total one-sided battering of Lucknow. The table toppers first put a mammoth 203/7 in the first innings, making sure that the scoreboard did all the intimidation that was needed.
They then reduced the Falcons to just 109 runs before taking the final wicket in the 16th over and taking home the trophy. In the final moments of the match, Rinku Singh was clearly visible as a man who has done what was expected of him. But it was not the Meerut skipper who was the MVP for the match.
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Divyansh Joshi turns the UP T20 finale into his own personal highlight reel
That title belonged to Divyansh Joshi, who racked up 105 off just 40 deliveries. This innings was powered by 12 boundaries and seven maximums to help the Mavericks cross the 200-run mark.
Once the innings were done, Vishal Chaudhary made sure that the Falcons never had a fighting chance, scalping four wickets for just 24 runs. But while Joshi might have been the centurion, Rinku Singh led his men with the same discipline that saw him being a core player for the 2024 KKR side that lifted the IPL.
Bhuvneshwar himself had the misfortune of beingstranded for the last wicket as his side looked at the impossible target of scoring 95 runs off the final 25 balls. That misfortune, however, didn’t last for long, as Abinandan Singh was gone in the very next ball, leaving Bhuvi the unbeaten man for a side very thoroughly beaten.
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Rinku Singh masterminds a complete tactical fall of the Lucknow Falcons
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has made a career out of his relentless bowling and getting wickets at the most clutch moments. So for Joshi to knock him for boundaries left and right definitely did a lot more damage than simply put up runs on the board.
But while Joshi provided the fireworks, Rinku Singh provided the tactical excellence that ensured Lucknow never even had a sniff of the 204-run target. Rather than resting on the massive total, Rinku deployed his bowlers with ruthless efficiency.
Zeeshan Ansari perfectly assisted Chaudhary, finishing with a suffocatingly economical 2-12 from his four overs. The Lucknow batters looked less like a team chasing a title and more like men eager to catch an early bus home, officially folding for 109 in just 16 overs to hand Meerut the championship.
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Source: sports.yahoo.com
