Bhubaneswar: It was a heartbreaking day for the India U-18 girl’s rugby team as they lost both their semifinal and the third-fourth place play-off matches to finish fourth in the Asian Rugby Sevens Championship which concluded at the Kalinga Stadium, Sunday. China thrashed Hong Kong 26-0 in the summit clash to take home winner’s trophy.
Earlier in the day, the Indian eves who had been dominant throughout the first two days of the competition lost to Hong Kong 7-50 in the semifinals before surrendering 5-25 against Thailand in the third-fourth place play-off match. Meanwhile, India had something to cheer about as Sweety Kumari was adjudged player of the tournament.
Speaking about the performance of the girls, India coach Leudwiche Van Deventer described it as a huge success despite finishing fourth. “It’s a huge success for the girls. We came into this tournament completely unknown. We wanted to play our type of Sevens rugby which the girls have been training so hard for the past couple of months and we did it,” the South African gaffer said.
Among the guests present during the presentation ceremony were commissioner cum secretary, sports and youth affairs, government of Odisha Vishal Dev, Asian Rugby president Aga Hussain, Hindi film actor and former India men’s rugby team skipper Rahul Bose.
Steady start
Sanket Behera (23 n o) and Biswajit Patra (20 n o) started on a cautious note to help Odisha U-16 finish at 58 without loss at the end of the second day’s play in reply to Jharkhand’s first innings total of 315 all out in the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Sunshine Ground in Cuttack, Sunday.
The visitors started on a overnight score of 297/7 and could add only 18 runs thanks to Abhishek Yadav’s (36 n o) knock ensuring them to go past 300-run mark.
Subrat clinches title
Akash Mohapatra thrashed Subrat Das 6-1 in the final to clinch the All Odisha Open Snooker Championship title here, Sunday. It was all about Akash as he took a 4-0 lead straightaway, However, Subrat reduced the deficit winning the fifth frame but Akash had some other plans as he won the next two frames to pocket the crown.