LUCKNOW, Sept. 4 -- This wasn't the sweetest end of Rinku Singh's own journey in the UPTwewnty20 League here on Wednesday, at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium as his side Meerut Mavericks lost to Kashi Rudras by a narrow margin in the first play-off.. To make it to the second consecutive final, Meerut Mavericks needed 20 runs in six balls and Rinku struck two, four and four to make it 10 in three balls. But before he could go for another 10 runs to script a sensational win in the first play-off of the third edition, Kartik Yadav took a diving catch by jumping to his front off Shivam Mavi to remove Rinku and this also brought an end to Meerut Mavericks journey. A five-run win for former champions Kashi Rudras helped them make it to the final, whereas Meerut Mavericks will play their semi-final match against the winners of the second play-off between Lucknow Falcons and Gorakhpur Lions on Thursday. But for that match, Meerut Mavericks will be without Rinku, who will be leaving for Dubai on Thursday along with Team India for the Asia Cup. On a black soil pitch No 7, 167-run winning target wasn't that big for the Rinku and Co, but some fine bowling by Kashi Rudras bowlers, especially spinners in the middle overs and later pacers in the last couple of overs, made it difficult for the defending champions before a sizable crowd on Wednesday afternoon. At the halfway stage, the batting-heavy Meerut Mavericks looked like the favourites to chase down 167 but they were pegged back from the very start. Left-arm seamer Sunil Kumar showed his might again, sending back off-colour opener Akshay Dubey, caught at the deep square-leg fence. And while the Mavericks didn't lose another wicket till the 11th over, their trouble was their inability to keep up with the required-rate. This was despite Rituraj Sharma's (65, 38b, 9x4, 2x6) effort as he kept finding the boundary throughout his knock, hitting the fence nine times and over it on two occasions. It was at the other end that the Mavericks struggled as Swastik Chikara (25, 32b, 1x4, 1x6) failed to get going with his typical flair. It was a fine piece of fielding by Kartik Yadav off his own bowling that would help run Chikara out. Kartik would later take a brilliant tumbling catch to end Rinku's innings too to cap a fine day in the field. Another short partnership followed but once Rituraj departed, bowled off K Sharma, the Mavericks lost their way. Off the four overs between the 14th and 17th, they lost four wickets, leaving Rinku to do all the heavy lifting at the end. A 16-run over from Mavi brought the equation down to 28 required from the final two overs but Rinku had no support at the end and was forced to refuse singles. As a result, only eight came from the 19th, leaving them to score 20 from the final one. A couple of boundaries on either side of the deep cover fielder raised the Mavericks hopes but a sliced shot off a Mavi slower one went to that same cover fielder and Kartik ran in, dived forward and held on to a superb catch. A late Zeeshan Ansari boundary kept Meerut in the encounter till the final ball but he failed to get any ball to it, leaving Kashi winners. Earlier, Vishal Chaudhary's third over of the day looked like it could prove to be the turning point for Meerut Mavericks who managed to slow things down dramatically for Kashi Rudras after they had won the toss and batted first. The 12th of the innings, Chaudhary had conceded a six off the very first ball as Uvais Ahmed danced down the track to loft him over the long-off fielder. The next ball was a full-toss that could have seen a duplication of the previous result but Uvais only managed to mistime it to deep-cover and get caught. Kashi Rudras 166/8 in 20 overs (K Sharma 43, Uvais Ahmad 28; Zeeshan Ansari 3/18, Vishal Chaudhary 3/28) beat Meerut Mavericks 161/7 in 20 overs (Rituraj Sharma 65, Rinku Singh 40; Atal Bihari Rai 1/25, Shivam Mavi 2/48) by five runs....