Dhruv Jurel played a captain’s knock to help guide the Gorakhpur Lions to a 91-run win over the Noida Super Kings in their UP T20 League 2024 opening match in Lucknow on Monday.

Jurel smashed 70 runs off just 46 balls, including three fours and five sixes, to help his side to a winning start in the league.

While the knock is Jurel’s highest in T20 cricket, the matches in the UP T20 League, now in its second season, are not counted in domestic records.

Aryan Juyal, however, top-scored in the match with an unbeaten 104 off 54 balls as the Gorakhpur Lions, batting first, amassed 218/2 in their allotted 20 overs at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium.

In reply, the Super Kings were bundled out for just 127 with Shivam Sharma being the pick among bowlers with 3/24 from four overs. Ankit Rajpoot, Saurabh Kumar and Vijay Yadav also chipped in with two wickets each.

Opening the batting, Dhruv Jurel, who plays for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, made his intentions clear with a four and six in the second over. Though Jurel lost his opening partner in the fourth over, he joined hands with Aryan Juyal to keep the scoring rate high.

Dhruv Jurel brought up his fifty in just 34 balls as the Gorakhpur Lions moved to 118/1 after 12 overs. He shifted gears effortlessly to score 20 off the next 12 balls before getting dismissed by Piyush Chawla. But the damage was already done as the Lions set the Super Kings a target of 219, thanks to Akshdeep Nath’s cameo in the last over.

Chasing a huge total, the Super Kings faltered as they were reduced to 3/3 in just the third over and never recovered from that.