A rare hat-trick by Abhisek Raut propelled home favourites Cuttack-A to an eight-wicket win over Keonjhar in their preliminary league match of the OCA Inter-District T20 League at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack today. The significance of the hat-trick was that Raut captured three wickets in a row in just three balls he bowled in the match.

The tournament commenced with 18 matches taking place at nine venues in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Jatni and Tangi. Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) president Pankaj Lochan Mohanty, secretary Sanjay Behera and other office-bearers attended matches at different venues as guests.

Besides Cuttack-A, other fancied teams such as Bhubaneswar-A, Cuttack-B, Bhubaneswar-B, East Coast Railway (ECoRSA) and Rourkela registered comfortable wins. Jajpur and Kandhamal posted most exciting wins, beating Balasore and Nuapada respectively by one run.

Govind Poddar emerged the most successful player of the day as his contributions of 95 runs and two wickets enabled Sundargarh beat Boudh by 81 runs. Among other successful batsmen Subhranshu S Senapati (Keonjhar), Subhankar Biswas (Rourkela), Durga Prasad Behera (Nayagarh), Sparsh Somani (Balasore), Dibya Ranjan Das (Mayurbhanj), Ayush Niak (Sambalpur), Ankit Singh (Sundargarh), Sameer Mohanty (ECoRSA), Binit Mohanty (Cuttack-B), Sunil Kumar Sahoo (Dhenkanal), Gouurav Choudhury (Kendrapara) and Aditya Rout (Koraput) scored a half-century each.

Dibya Ranjan Das (Mayurbhanj) also excelled with the ball, scalping five wickets for seven runs, which as the best haul of the day. Rashmi Ranjan Sahu (Kandhamal) as another outstanding bowler, bagging 5 for 19 against Nuapada. Among other successful bowlers, Ankitkar Jaiswal (Rourkela), Jitendra Thappa (Balangir) and Gourabh Rout (Nuapada) claimed four wickets each.

BRIEF SCORES (14 December, 2020):

Match 1 (At Barabati Stadium, Cuttack): Kenojhar 134/10 in 19.3 overs (Subhranshu S Senapati 78; Abhisek Raut 3/0 (Hat-trick), Asish Rai 3/12) lost to Cuttack-A 138/2 in 16.1 overs (Jyoti Ranjan Dalai 46, Rajesh Dhupar 44, Biplab Samantray 37; Sujit K Barik 1/16, Imran Khan 1/31) by 8 wickets.

Match 2 (At Barabati Stadium, Cuttack): Rourkela 127/6 in 20 overs (Subhankar Biswas 50, Hemant Nayak 31; Nihar Bhuyan 3/19, Satyakam Bharadwaj 2/31) beat Bhadrak 101/10 in 19 overs (Jitendu Bhoi 32; Ankitkar Jaiswal 4/18, Swastik Samal 2/14, Asish Mitra 2/18) by 26 runs.

Match 3 (At DRIEMS Ground, Tangi): Nayagarh 184/4 in 20 overs (Durga Prasad Behera 64, Prasanta K Barala 40; Santosh K Rout 2/43) beat Jagatsinghpur 101/10 in 17.4 overs (Sakti P Behera 19; Simrit Samantaray 2/16, Badal Bhol 2/16, Abhijit Barik 2/22, Kumar P Samantray 2/24) by 83 runs.

Match 4 (At DRIEMS Ground, Tangi): Jajpur 141/9 in 20 overs (Amin Ikbal Khan 44, Mozakir Khan 40; Nauttam Bhanja 3/22, Nirbi Shankar Barik 2/3, Sarbeswar Mohanty 2/23) beat Balasore 140/8 in 20 overs (Sparsh Somani 67; Satya P Padhi 3/29, Amin Ikbal Khan 2/25, Papu Ray 2/31) by 1 run.

Match 5 (At Nimpur Ground, Cuttack): Malkangiri 126/6 in 20 overs (Subir Sardar 34, Korapuk Sandeep 33; Chandramani Biswal 2/21, Prasant K Bisi 2/21) lost to Sonepur 129/6 in 17.3 overs (B Purusottam 38, Chandramani Biswal 24; Ranjan Nayak 3/25, Dinesk Halba 2/17) by 4 wickets.

Match 6 (At Nimpur Ground, Cuttack): Mayurbhanj 160/3 in 20 overs (Dibya Ranjan Das 57*, Swabhim das 47*; Prakash Palaka 2/35) beat Gajapati 117/10 in 19.3 overs (Ronals RB Singh 39, AS Dora 32; Dibya Ranjan Das 5/7, Subit Sritam Sethi 2/22) by 43 runs.

Match 7 (At KIIT Ground, Bhubaneswar): Puri 66/10 in 18.3 overs (Rameswar Mahala 16; Manoj Barik 3/12, Basant Mohanty 2/12, Sukanta Hati 2/14) lost to Bhubaneswar-A 69/2 in 9.3 overs (Santanu Mishra 33*; Susanta Beja 1/21) by 8 wickets.

Match 8 (At KIIT Ground, Bhubaneswar): Jharsuguda 135/6 in 20 overs (Raj Kishan Patel 31, Roshan Prasad 29, Sagar Rout 28*; Lalu Mohanty 2/14) lost to Bhubaneswar-B 138/2 in 18.3 overs (Pratik Das 46, Dibya Jyoti Pradhan 38*, Sourabh Gouda 36*; Tarini Sa 1/13) by 8 wickets.

Match 9 (At Vikash Ground, Bhubaneswar): Sambalpur 148/7 in 20 overs (Ayush Niak 67, Sayed Zaki 28; Subash Ch Mallick 2/35) beat KIIT 98/4 in 20 overs (M Prasant 39; Sayed Zaki 2/22) by 50 runs.

Match 10 (At Vikash Ground, Bhubaneswar): Balangir 137/7 in 20 overs (Subhasis Mirdha 32, Jay Kishan Pattanik 28; Rupak Pradhan 3/18, Rahul Choudhury 2/12) beat Bargarh 126/7 in 20 overs (Prabin Loha 47, Sourabh Nayak 36*; Jitendra Thappa 4/11) by 11 runs.

Match 11 (At Town Club Ground, Bhubaneswar): Sundergarh 201/2 in 20 ovrs (Govind Poddar 95, Ankit Singh 67; Manas Ranjan Behera 1/41) beat Boudh 120/7 in 20 ovrs (Bibhuti Mallick 37*, Dipak Tudu 24; Amarjeet Rout 2/15, Govind Poddar 2/20) by 81 runs.

Match 12 (At Town Club Ground, Bhubaneswar): Kandhamal 122/10 in 18.1 overs (Nrusingha Nath Pati 41, Abhisek Pattnaik 24; Gourabh Rout 4/6, Prayas Singh 2/16, Anshuman Gupta 2/19) beat Nuapada 121/8 in 20 overs (Bhubananda Sabar 26, Saroj Kumar Panda 25; Rashmi Ranjan Sahu 5/19) by 1 run.

Match 13 (At Bidanasi Ground, Cuttack): ECORSA 173/6 in 20 overs (Sameer Mohanty 50, Surya Kant Pradhan 29, Sujit Lenka 27; Rakesh Pattnaik 2/32) beat Khordha 76/10 in 18.5 overs (Santosh Jena 43; Jayanta Behera 3/13, Lagnajit Samal 2/9, Suryakant Pradhan 2/19) by 97 runs.

Match 14 (At Bidanasi Ground, Cuttack): Anugul 140/6 in 20 overs (Rakesh Gochhayat 44, Subhra Jyoti Mishra 32; Manish Rout 3/21, Dhiraj Singh 2/33) lost to Cuttack-B 142/4 in 17.3 overs (Binit Mohanty 57, Abinash Nayakk 48; Chinmaya Sahu 2/42) by 6 wickets.

Match 15 (At Ravenshaw Ground, Cuttack): Rayagada 29/10 in 11 overs (Dinesh Rout 2/4, Kalia Sahoo 2/5, Samir Sahoo 2/6, Abhijit Hota 2/6) lost to Ganjam 32/0 in 7.4 overs (Debasish Sahu 14*, Ajay K Gouda 13*) by 10 wickets.

Match 16 (At Ravenshaw Ground, Cuttack): Dhenkanal 155/5 in 20 overs (Sunil Kumar Sahoo 62, Bikash Rout 45; Biswabhusana Bihari 2/39) beat Kendrapada 143/6 in 20 overs (Gouurav Choudhury 62, Amit Kumar Sahu 34; Anwesh Das 3/18) by 12 runs.

Match 17 (At Centurion Ground, Jatni): Kalahandi 140/6 in 20 ovrs (Trinath Patra 33, Malaya Ku Bag 23; Aditya Rout 3/29, Subham Rath 2/22) lost to Koraput 145/3 in 17.4 ovrs (Aditya Rout 59, G Chandra Sekhar 28) by 7 wickets.

Match 18 (At Centurion Ground, Jatni): Deogarh 80/6 in 18 overs (Prabin Tirkry 25, Suman Behera 20; Dinesh Sribastab 3/13) lost to Nabarangpur 81/0 in 9.3 overs (Sukesh Kumar Heera 40*, Purna Chandra Majhi 26*) by 10 wickets.
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PHOTO: Players and guests get introduced before a league match at KIIT Stadium in Bhubaneswar on 14 December, 2020.