Cuttack: Bhubaneswar A and Bhubaneswar B entered the final of the Kalahandi Cup cricket tournament after winning their respective semifinal matches at different grounds here Wednesday. The final comes off at the Ravenshaw Ground I here, Thursday.
In the first semifinal at DRIEMS Bhubaneswar A registered an emphatic eight wickets victory over Keonjhar. Put into bat, first Keonjhar were dismissed for a paltry 84 in 31 overs with Manoj Barik (5/26) doing maximum damage. He was well supported by Shantanu Mishra (3/16).
Bhubaneswar A romped home in 14.3 overs for the loss of two wickets with Anurag Sarangi (54 n o, 47b, 10×4) leading the run chase.
In the second semifinal at Ravenshaw Ground I Bhubaneswar B scripted a convincing six wickets victory over Cuttack A.
Put into bat, Cuttack A scored 205 runs for the loss of nine wickets in the stipulated 45 overs with Biplab Samantray (43, 56b, 2×4) emerging the highest scorer. Tukuna Sahoo (4/42) was the pick of the Bhubaneswar-B bowlers.
In reply the visitors rode on a fluent half century by Biswajit Bhuyan (83, 102b, 11×4, 1×6) to knock off the target in 41.5 overs for the loss of four wickets.
Brief scores:
(AT DRIEMS Ground): Keonjhar 84 (Subhranshu Senapati 37; Manoj Barik 5/26, Shantanu Mishra 3/16) lost to Bhubaneswar A 85/2 (Anurag Sarangi 54 n o) by eight wickets.
(At Ravenshaw Ground I): Cuttack A 205 (Biplab Samantray 43; Tukuna Sahoo 4/42) lost to Bhubaneswar B 206/4 (Biswajit Bhuyan 83; Alok Sahoo 2/38) by six wickets.
11 emerge joint leaders in state U-7 chess
Eleven players have emerged joint leaders with two points each after completion of two rounds of the Odisha State U-7 Open & Girls’ Chess Championships, organised by Master Chess Foundation, at Narayan School here, Wednesday.
Aarav Singh, Biswa Preet Ray, Swastik Suvam Patnaik, Sai Satya Panda, J Vihan Reddy, Saikiran Naik and Rudranarayan Sahoo of Cuttack, Aditya Vikram Mishra and Roshan Tripathy of Khurda, Ayushman Mohanty of Puri and Adarsh Ranjan Samal of Sundargarh are sharing the lead.
In second round matches played Wednesday, Aarav defeated Arka Mishra, Biswa got the better of Sankalp Srikumar Singh, Swastik outplayed Jayaditya Padhy, Sai Satya outclassed Anay Shaurya Mohanty and Vihan outsmarted Amrut Dash while Saikiran, Rudranarayan, Aditya Vikram, Roshan, Ayushman and Adarsh won their matches against Abhijit Biswal, Debapriya Parida, Pratik Kushal Rout, Jisu Kisan Das, Sai Shakti Panda and Jagat Jasim Patra respectively.
In the Girls’ segment, six players are sharing the lead with two points. Ayushi Mohanty of Puri, Pratyasha Jena, Sandeepa Priyadarshini Sahoo, Aishwariya Sahoo and Sinchana Dash (all from Cuttack), and Khurda’s Ishani Das had an all-win record on the day.
Ayushi defeated Swastika Das, Prtyasha got the better of Adyasha Pranavi and Sandeepa outplayed Ayushi Das.
Debanshee Sarangi of Khurda is in sole second position with 1.5 points after getting better of Aadrita Subudhi in her second round match.
Star XI enter semis
Star XI, Rajpur sailed into the semifinal of the VIIth Kamlu Ping Belpahara League Knock-out football tournament after registering a 3-1 win over JB Club, Thungiadera at Gumadera in Belpahar, Wednesday.
Prasant Oram broke the deadlock in the 29th minute to put Star XI ahead. JB Club however restored parity through Sonu Horo in the 36th minute. However, the joy of the equaliser was shortlived, as Sanjit Oram put the winning side ahead second time in the game with a wonderful strike two minutes later. Guddu Dehuri completed the thrashing with a 43rd-minute strike.
Darlipali will meet Talibahal in the last quarterfinal, Thursday.
Bowlers dominate in U-16 cricket
Bowlers performed splendidly to help their teams register victories against their respective opponents in most of the low-scoring matches of the U-16 Inter-District cricket tournament at different grounds here Wednesday. Asutosh Samal (5/23) of Bhadrak and Jamil Lokatkar Quadir (5/12) of Jajpur were the pick of the bowlers.
At the BOSE ground Bhadrak registered a huge nine wickets victory over a hapless Kendrapara after dismissing the latter for 57 only. They then knocked off the victory target in 10.3 overs.
Brief scores:
(At BOSE ground): Kendrapara 57 (Asutosh Samal 5/23) lost to Bhadrak 58/1 (Chittaranjan Behera 29) by nine wickets.
(At Nimpur Ground): Jajpur 164 (Harsh Singh 34; Punit Raghubanshi 3/28) bt Angul 40 (Jamil Lokatkar Quadir 5/12) by 124 runs.
(At Sunshine Ground): Sambalpur 126 (Dhruti Samu 42; OM Sairam Mohapatra 3/23) bt Khurda 118 (Abinav Nanda 2/14) by eight runs.
(At Ravenshaw Ground II): Jharsuguda 152/7 (Kunal Ray 50) bt Bargarh 72 (Sriram Yadav 3/16) by 80 runs.
(At SCB Ground): Sundargarh 145 (Rinkesh Khuntia 43 n o; Ashis jena 4/15) bt Keonjhar 106 (Ruturaj Mohanty 59; Akash Seikh 4/14) by 39 runs.