LUCKNOW, Sept. 7 -- Spirited Kashi Rudras regained the glittering trophy of the UPTwenty20 League on Saturday, defeating defending champions Meerut Mavericks by eight wickets, at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here. Inform skipper Karan Sharma led from the front and ensured a smooth victory of the Kashi Rudras, which had the trophy in the maiden edition of the league in 2023. In 2024, Meerut Mavericks won the trophy after defeating Kanpur Superstars. Sharma smacked a fine 31-ball 65 with the help of ten boundaries and two sixes as Kashi Rudras romped home in 15.4 overs while chasing 145 to win in 20 overs. He along with fellow opener Abhishek Goswami (61*, 45b, 8x4, 1x6) added 108 runs for the opening wicket. It was a bad toss to win for Meerut Mavericks in absence of their regular skipper Rinku Singh, who has been with Team India at UAE for the Asia Cup, starting next week, as they never found the going easy while batting first after winning the toss. After losing opener Swastik Chikara on the very first ball on duck, Meerut Mavericks kept losing wickets on regular intervals. Chikara was caught by Shivam Mavi off Sunil Kumar. At the team's total of 25, inconsistent Akshay Dubey (17, 15b, 2x4, 1x6) too was bowled by slow bowler Kartik Yadav and thereafter stand-in skipper Madhav Kaushik (6, 14b) too departed soon, edging an easy catch for Shiva Singh off Mavi. Rituraj Sharma (12, 15b, 2x4) and last-match hero Divyansh Rajput (18, 18b, 1x6) too departed in quick succession as Meerut Mavericks were reduced to 76/5 in 13.2 overs. Though Prashant Chaudhary and Ritik Vats tried to adorn the innings by taking the score to 103, nothing changed further. Choudhary top scored 37, which came off 29 balls with the help of four hits to the fence and a six, whereas Vats scored 12-ball 18 with the help of two sixes. Yash Garg (14), Zeeshan Ansari (3), Vijay Kumar (1*), and Kartik Tyagi (9*) too couldn't do much as Meerut Mavericks' innings folded at 144/9. For Kashi Rudras, Kartik Yadav, Shivam Mavi and Sunil Kumar shared six wickets between them, whereas Atal Bihari Rai took 1/28. The winners got the biggest purse of Rs 1 crore, whereas Meerut Mavericks had to satisfy with Rs 60 lakhs. Lucknow Falcons and Gorakhpur Lions got Rs 40 lakh each for finishing third and fourth, respectively, whereas Noida Superkings and Kanpur Superstars were given Rs 30 lakh each....