Odisha’s winning run in the Under-23 Men’s One-day Tournament ended today when they lost to Punjab by eight wickets in the quarterfinals at Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Before this defeat, Odisha had won five matches in a row _ four in East Zone League and the pre-quarterfinal against Manipur.

Electing to bat against Punjab, Odisha rode on a half-century each by captain Subhranshu Senapati and Devendra Singh Kunwar to muster a healthy total of 258 for seven. The duo put the team in a strong position, stitching together 117 runs for the fourth wicket.

Senapati was the top scorer with 96-ball 72, which included six fours and two sixes. Kunwar gave him ideal support, making a 55 (98b, 4x4). Besides Senapati and Kunwar, allrounder Debabrata Pradhan and opener Rajesh Dhuper made notable contributions of 48 and 37 respectively.

But the fine performance of Odisha batsmen went in vain as Punjab overhauled the target in 47 overs, losing only two wickets. The top three Punjab batsmen hit a half-century each. Among them, opener Abhijeet Garg missed a century by one run. Other opener Sanvir Singh scored 50 while Ramandeep Singh remained unbeaten on 86.

SCORECARD

ODISHA: Rajesh Dhuper c Kaila b Chaudhary 37, Amrit Khatua c Malhotra b Chaudhary 11, Soubhagya Ranjan Mishra c Malhotra b Sanvir 2, Subhransu Senapati c Malhotra b Arshdeep 72, Devendra S Kunwar c Malhotra b Arshdeep 55, Ranjit Paikaray lbw Arshdeep 0, Debabrata Pradhan c Virk b Arshdeep 48, Rajkishan Patel (not out) 21, Ashutosh Das (not out) 0; Extras (nb-1, w-11) 12
Total (7 wickets; 50 overs) 258
Did not bat: Aman Shastri, Pappu Roy
Fall of wickets: 1-34 (Khatua, 4.1 ov), 2-50 (Mishra, 7.1), 3-64 (Dhuper, 8.4), 4-181 (Senapati, 39.1), 5-181 (Paikaray, 39.3), 6-186 (Kunwar, 41.5), 7-250 (Pradhan, 49.4)
Bowling: Arshdeep Singh 9-1-60-4, Sanvir Singh 9-1-44-1, Karan Kaila 10-2-25-0, N Chaudhary 4-1-35-2, Abhinav Sharma 6-0-40-0, Sukhjinder Singh 7-1-25-0, Arpit Pannu 5-0-29-0.

PUNJAB: Abhijeet Garg lbw Patel 99, Sanvir Singh c Dhuper b Pradhan 50, Ramandeep Singh (not out) 86, ARK Malhotra (not out) 17; Extras (nb-1, w-8, lb-1) 10
Total (2 wickets; 47 overs) 262
Fall of wickets: 1-98 (Sanvir Singh, 17.6 ov), 2-212 (Garg, 40.6 ov)
Bowling: Debabrata Pradhan 9-0-43-1, Ashutosh Das 7-0-45-0, Rajkishan Patel 10-0-50-1, Aman Shastri 4-0-32-0, Pappu Roy 10-0-37-0, Devendra S Kunwar 7-0-54-0.