East Coast Railway captain and wicketkeeper Sujit Lenka emerged as the star of the opening day of the Kalahandi Cup Inter-District Cricket Tournament (Senior & U-19 Men), which commenced under the aegis of Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) at different venues in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar today.
Lenka hit an unbeaten 174 (152 balls, 17x4, 3x6) to power the Railway side beat Kendrapara by 38 runs at KIIT Cricket Stadium in Bhubaneswar today. Ganjam, Boudh, Sundargarh, Dhenkanal, Nabarangpur, Bhubaneswar-A, Khordha and Nayagarh posted wins in eight other matches of the day.
RESULTS (26 July, 2021):
Match 1 (At KIIT Cricket Stadium, Bhubaneswar): East Coast Railway 265/7 in 50 overs (Sujit K Lenka 174*, Girija P Rout 52; Bikash Parida 3/57, Vimal Kumar 2/65) beat Kendrapara 227/10 in 48.4 overs (Satya R Samal 81, Aakash Chandra Nayak 68, Amit K Sahoo 35; Alok K Mangaraj 2/40, Jayanta K Behera 2/49) by 38 runs. MoM: Sujit Lenka.
Match 2 (At Driems Cricket Stadium, Tangi, Cuttack): Ganjam 157/8 in 38 overs (Om T Munde 61*, Mudidana S Bhanu 54; Milan Samal 4/18, Deepak Tiwari 3/15) beat Angul 156/8 in 38 overs (Nirnimesh Jena 51*, Rakesh Biswal 24, Chinmaya K Sahu 22; Om T Munde 2/25, Laxmi N Pal 2/30, Kalia Sahu 2/43) by 1 run. MoM: Om T Munde.
Match 3 (At EC Railway Stadium, Bhubaneswar): Kalahandi 82/10 in 29.2 overs (Jitendra K Patra 24, Avijeet Mohanty 20; Anurag Kanojia 2/8, Ratiranjan Barik 2/8, Jyoti Ranjan Dalai 2/16, Sobhandev Behera 2/13) lost to Boudh 83/8 in 17.1 overs (Debashis Bagh 22; Avijeet Mohanty 4/21, Gobinda Naik 3/25) by 2 wickets. MoM: Sobhandev Behera.
Match 4 (At Nimpur Cricket Ground, Cuttack): Sundargarh 186/10 in 50 overs (Vicky Prasad 77, Shivnandan Choubey 23, Sahil Prasad 22; Dhiraj Kumar Singh 6/30) beat Cuttack-B 165/10 in 35.5 overs (Ashutosh Das 46, Saideep Mohapatra 37, Sambit K Sahoo 26; Sahil Prasad 3/28, Amit K Das 3/47, Akash Seikh 2/36) by 21 runs. MoM: Sahil Prasad.
Match 5 (At Ravenshaw University Ground, Cuttack): Dhenkanal 149/10 in 39.3 overs (Laxmidhar Sahoo 74; Satyakam Bharadwaj 3/34, Nihar B Bhuyan 2/22, Mrunmay Tripathy 2/48) beat Bhadrak 117/10 in 36.5 overs (Jyotiranjan Maharana 36, Nihar B Bhuyan 34*; Mustak Beg 6/20, Sunil K Sahoo 2/38) by 32 runs. MoM: Mustak Beg.
Match 6 (At Ravenshaw University Ground, Cuttack): Malkangiri 55/10 in 17.3 overs (Abhishek Banik 27; Sudhansu S Nayak 5/13, Dillip K Bisoi 3/10) lost to Nabarangpur 56/1 in 6.0 overs (Ansuman Tripathy 39*; Rama C Kabasi 1/21) by 9 wickets. MoM: Sudhansu S Nayak.
Match 7 (At Bidanasi Ground, Cuttack): Bhubaneswar-A 173/10 in 47.4 overs (Narendra Dash 56, Anshuman Sahoo 26, Ayushraj Choudhury 23; Subha S Barik 4/25, Sk Sahil 3/23) beat Balasore 82/10 in 29.3 overs (Tapas K Rout 16; Ansuman Bej 5/17, Manoj Barik 2/10, Preet K Chouhan 2/21) by 91 runs. MoM: Ansuman Bej.
Match 8 (At Sunshine Ground, Cuttack): Nuapada 122/10 in 35.3 overs (Baleswar Majhi 30, Md Noaman R Khan 28, Aaryan S Samanta 22; Aum A Narayan 5/21) lost to Khordha 126/2 in 14.2 overs (Sidhant K Jena 69, Aryashree D Bhatta 28*, Jyoti R Behera 24*) by 8 wickets. MoM: Aum A Narayan.
Match 9 (At SCB Medical College Ground, Cuttack): Nayagarh 175/10 in 43.3 overs (Badal Bhol 33, Abhijit S Barik 26, Liladhar Pradhan 23, Krushna C Barik 22; Prabin Tirkey 5/37, Jeetendra K Biswal 2/32, Pintu Karigar 2/32) beat Deogarh 78/10 in 25.5 overs (Nilakantha Nayak 17; Prasanta Rana 3/26, Badal Bhol 3/22, Sai P Acharya 3/17) by 97 runs. MoM: Badal Bhol.
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PHOTO: East Coast Railway captain and wicketkeeper Sujit Lenka poses after guiding his team to victory in the first match of the Kalahandi Cup Inter-District Cricket Tournament in Bhubaneswar on 27 July, 2021.