Balasore caused the first major upset in the ongoing OCA Inter-District T20 League, beating fancied Rourkela by 24 runs in a third-round match at Nimpur Ground in Cuttack today. Nirbishankar Barik was the main architect of the Balasore win, hitting a half-century and picking up three wickets.
However, Cuttack-A, Bhubaneswar-A, Cuttack-B, Bhubaneswar-B and East Coast Railway (ECoRSA) posted respective third successive wins to get closer to the super league stage. Railway left-arm spinner Jayant Behera emerged as the most notable achiever of the day with the best bowling performance of the league so far.
A superb haul of six wickets for 13 runs by Behera powered the Railway side to a thumping 145-run win over Rayagada. The 18 preliminary league matches of the day produced as many as 21 half-centuries and six hauls of four wickets each.
BRIEF SCORES (16 December, 2020):
Match 37 (At Nimpur Ground, Cuttack): Jagatsinghpur 118/10 in 20 overs (Shamsul Khan 59, Santosh Rout 30; Ashis Rai 4/17, Tarakanta Samal 3/17, Deepak Behera 2/18) lost to Cuttack-A 119/0 in 13.3 overs (Rajesh Dhupar 63*, Rama Behera 34*) by 10 wickets.
Match 38 (At Nimpur Ground, Cuttack): Balasore 154/7 in 20 overs (Nirbishankar Barik 54, Sarbeswar Mohanty 43; Ayashkant Sahu 3/27, Ritesh Pandey 2/39) beat Rourkela 130/9 in 20 overs (Hemant Nayak 25, Swastik Samal 23, Ansuman Gope 21; Sekhar Majhi 3/25, Nirbishankar Barik 3/30, Sarbeswara Mohanty 2/34) by 24 runs.
Match 39 (At DRIEMS Ground, Tangi): Keonjhar 166/8 in 20 overs (Sourav Swayam 46, Ashutosh Ray 44, Subhranshu Senapti 31; Achyut Pradhan 4/41, Manoj Majhi 3/37) beat Malkangiri 107/9 in 20 overs (Korapu Sandeep 51, Suraj Bagh 20; Akash Jena 2/6, Ashutosh Ray 2/18) by 59 runs.
Match 40 (At DRIEMS Ground, Tangi): Gajapati 61/10 in 13 over (Ganesh Gouda 23; Harshit Rathod 4/15, Mrunmay Tripathy 3/15) lost to Bhadrak 62/0 in 4.3 overs (Kshamasagal Bal 43*) by 10 wickets.
Match 41 (At Barabati Stadium, Cuttack): Nayagarh 113/9 in 20 overs (Durgaprasad Behera 29, Prasanta Baral 21; B Purusottam Patra 2/15, Chandramani Biswal 2/17, KG Krishna 2/29) beat Sonepur 106/8 in 20 overs (B Purusottam 32, Abhilash Nayak 32; Abhijit Barik 3/29, Dillip Panda 2/11) by 7 runs.
Match 42 (At Barabati Stadium, Cuttack): Jajpur 149/5 in 20 overs (Nishikanta Rout 79, Mojakir Khan 40; Sanjay Singh 2/24) beat Mayurbhanj 105/6 in 20 overs (Abhigyan Mohanty 34, Laxmidhara Singh 25; Papu Ray 2/24, Amin I Khan 2/19) by 44 runs.
Match 43 (At Vikash Ground, Bhubaneswar): Sambalpur 116/8 in 20 overs (Kamal Bahadur 31, Sayed Zaki 28*, Khusal Pate 27; Sukanta Hati 3/11, Basant Mohanty 2/17, B Shiva 2/21) lost to Bhubaneswar-A 120/7 in 20 overs (Shantanu Mishra 46, Biswajit Bhuyan 24, Subham Satrujit 23) by 3 wickets.
Match 44 (At Vikash Ground, Bhubaneswar): Bhubaneswar-B 141/4 in 20 overs (Pratik Das 37, Raghunath Malla 32, Pratyush Das 31; Anshuman Mishra 1/20) beat Balangir 115/7 in 20 overs (Babulu Sethi 39*; Minal Parida 2/29) by 26 runs.
Match 45 (At Centurion Ground, Jatni): Boudh 159/7 in 20 overs (Vyankatesh A 41, Bibhu Mallick 38, Hemanta K 22; Alok Mohapatra 3/34, Umesh Mishra 2/12) beat Puri 121/8 in 20 overs (Sanat Singhdeo 29, Risikesh Das 22; Rajnish Yadav 2/13, Manoj Nayak 2/16, Deepak Tudu 2/37) by 38 runs.
Match 46 (At Centurion Ground, Jatni): Kandhamal 83/10 in 18.5 overs (Sukumar Tripathy 26; Ranjeet Singh Yadav 3/13, Tarini Sa 2/16, Rajkishan Patel 2/18) lost to Jharsuguda 87/1 in 9.3 overs (Pratik Yadav 43*, Sagar Kumar Rout 28*; Nilkamal Behera 1/11) by 9 wickets.
Match 47 (At Ravenshaw Ground, Cuttack): KIIT 132/6 in 20 overs (Ashis Parija 38, Anshuman Sinha 28; Govind Poddar 3/19) lost to Sundargarh 133/0 in 18.5 overs (Ankit Singh 70*, Asish Parija 54*) by 10 wickets.
Match 48 (At Ravenshaw Ground, Cuttack): Nuapada 100/9 in 20 0vers (Bhubanananda Sabar 26, Saroj Panda 21; Badal Nishad 4/17, Rahul Choudhury 2/19) lost to Bargarh 101/1 in 14.5 overs (Rupak Pradhan 57, Aryaman Mishra 29; Ritesh Mohanty 1/29) by 9 wickets.
Match 49 (At KIIT Ground, Bhubaneswar): ECORSA 212/6 in 20 overs (Abhishek Yadav 88, Ankit Yadav 70; Uma Sahu 4/16) beat Rayagada 67/10 in 15.5 overs (Sidhartha Tripathy 29, Samir Mandal 20; Jayanta Behera 6/13) by 145 runs.
Match 50 (At KIIT Ground, Bhubaneswar): Dhenkanal 190/4 in 20 overs (Bikash Rout 50*, Asish Sahu 49, Abhinab Rout 36; Abhisek Kar 1/20) beat Deogarh 125/6 in 20 overs (Charchil Sethy 40, Prabin Tirkey 27, Saumya Bhanja 24*; Sunil Sahoo 2/16) by 65 runs.
Match 51 (At Town Club Ground, Bhubaneswar): Khordha 291/5 in 20 overs (Rakesh Pattanik 96, Sidhant K Jena 84, Induru Giri 50; Pranat Panda 3/28) beat Kalahandi 131/8 in 20 overs (Trinath Patra 45*, Malaya Bag 28, Uttsab Bhoi 21; Sumit Maharana 2/15) by 160 runs.
Match 52 (At Town Club Ground, Bhubaneswar): Cuttack-B 164/7 in 20 overs (Abhinash Nayak 65*, Binit Mohanty 38; Shiba Harijan 2/19, Amit Dash 2/29) beat Nabarangpur 146/3 in 20 overs (Sukesh Heera 67, Dushmanta Bissoyi 39*, Anshuman Tripathy 24; Alok Chandra Sahoo 2/17) by 18 runs.
Match 53 (At Bidanasi Ground, Cuttack): Ganjam 201/3 in 20 overs (Ajay Goura 89, K Iswar Prasad 69*; Niranjan Gouda 1/36) beat Koraput 128/7 in 20 overs (GC Sekhar 55, Prabhanjan Adhikari 28; Sameer Sahu 2/4) by 73 runs.
Match 54 (At Bidanasi Ground, Cuttack): Paradip 131/10 in 19.5 overs (Ilu Gochayat 76; Rajesh Patra 4/15, Dipti Bihari 2/14, Manoj Kashyap 2/23) lost to Kendrapada 132/2 in 15.4 overs (Biswabhusana Bihari 55*, Gourav Choudhury 39, Soubhagya Mohanty 29*; Sk Rahat Ali 1/23) by 8 wickets.
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PHOTO: File picture of East Coast Railway left-arm spinner Jayant Behera.