Cuttack-A won both of their super league matches to march into the final of the OCA Senior Men Inter-District T20 Tournament today. In their second game, Cuttack-A rode on a half-century each by Abhishek Raut and captain Biplab Samantray to beat Bhubaneswar-B by 58 runs at East Coast Railway Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

Put into bat, Cuttack-A compiled an imposing total of 190 for five, thanks to sparking knock of 70 (49b, 3x4, 5x6) by allrouner Raut and 58 (35b, 6x4, 2x6) by Samantray. Deepak Behera also chipped in with an unbeaten 25 of seven balls. In reply, Bhubaneswar-B were restricted to 132 for seven, notwithstanding a defiant knock of 53 by captain Pratik Das.

Meanwhile, Bhubaneswar-A defeated Cuttack-B by six wickets in their second and last super league match at KIIT Ground in Bhubaneswar today. Notwithstanding the win, Bhubaneswar-A could not assure themselves of a berth in the final due to the defeat they suffered against East Coast Railway in their first match yesterday.

The highlight of this match was a fine knock of 89 by Cuttack-B captain Alok Chandra Sahoo. In reply to competitive total of 127 by Cuttack-B, Bhubaneswar-A romped home with one over to spare, losing four wickets in the process. Bhubaneswar-A captain Basant Mohanty played important role in their win, taking three wickets.

In the last two super league matches tomorrow, East Coast Railway will meet Cuttack-B at East Coast Railway Stadium, Bhubaneswar, while Bhubaneswar-B will face Balasore at Ravenshaw University Ground, Cuttack. The final match will also take place tomorrow with Cuttack-A taking on Group-B toppers under lights at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack.

BRIEF SCORES (21 December, 2020):

Match 99 (At KIIT Ground, Bhubaneswar): Cuttack-B 127/10 in 19.1 overs (Alok Chandra Sahoo 89; Basant Mohanty 3/29, B Shiva 2/17, Shantanu Mishra 2/19, Asis Pradhan 2/22) lost to Bhubaneswar-A 131/4 in 19.0 overs (Shantanu Mishra 48*, Sandeep Pattnaik 43*; Siddharth Sinha 2/20) by 6 wickets.

Match 100 (At East Coast Railway Stadium, Bhubaneswar): Cuttack-A 190/5 in 20 overs (Abhishek Raut 70, Biplab Samantray 58, Deepak Ranjan 25*; Minal Parida 2/43) beat Bhubaneswar-B 132/7 in 20 overs (Pratik Das 53, SK Salman 29, Tukuna Sahu 24; Asish Rai 2/11, Deepak Behera 2/24) by 58 runs and qualified for the final.
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PHOTO: File picture of Cuttack-A allrounder Abhishek Raut.