State U-9, U-19 Chess concludes
Bhubaneswar: FM Rakesh Kumar Jena of Jajpur and Sradhanjali Jena of Cuttack scored six and 5.5 points and emerged champion in the U-19 open and girls events respectively in the 3rd Srusti Chess Festival - 2015 ( Odisha State U-9,U-19 Open & Girls Chess Championship - 2015) held at Srusti Academy of Management here on Sunday. Sunyasakta Satapathy, WFM Rutumbara Bidhar and Sovna Sonali Jena finished 2nd, third and fourth respectively in the girls event. Similarly in the open event, Ashirwad Swain, Rajesh Nayak and Rakesh Kumar Nayak scored 5.5 points each and finished 2nd,3rd and 4th respectively. P Sairupa of Cuttack and Bijayalaxmi Barik of Khurda scored 5.5 and five points respectively and emerged champion and runner up in the girls under-9 events. Similarly in the open events top two place claimed by Manish Kumar of Khurda and Prayansu Prasmit of Cuttack with six points each. Top two players will represent the State in the forthcoming National (U-9) Open and Girls Chess Championship - 2015, at Ahmadabad, Gujarat, from June 11 to 19. Top four players will represent the State in the forthcoming National Junior (U-19) Girls Chess Championship - 2015, at Chennai, Tamilnadu from July 24 to 31. Prabhujee English Medium School principal Sanghamitra Patnaik distributed the prizes as the chief guest of the closing ceremony. Among others, AOCA secretary Vivek Kumar Tibarewal, executive member Suresh Chandra Sahoo and Srusti Academy of Management director GD Mishra were present.
Bhubaneswar Colts lift E-league Cricket trophies
Bhubaneswar: In the final of E-league held here on Sunday at IMMT Cricket Ground, Bhubaneswar Colts beat defending champions BSNl by 26 runs to be crowned E-league Champions for 2014-15. E-league is an effort of the organisers to conduct a more constructive, structured cricket tournament to provide a platform to professional, amateur and budding cricketers. Apart from providing the future of Odisha cricket to rub shoulders with people who have been there and done that, this tournament also provides the state’s top and budding players to enjoy a state-of-the-art infrastructure in the form of great turf wickets and great atmosphere for the game of cricket. The star attractions of this tournament were many former and present National players from the State like Amaresh Mohanty, Niranjan Behera, Sanjay Satpathy, Bikash Pati, Tukuna Sahu, BBCC Mohapatra, Priyabrata Pradhan, Sujan Mohanty etc. The tournament commenced on 7th December 2014 and concluded today. Bhubaneswar Colts won the toss and opted to bat first in the final here at IMMT Cricket Ground. The openers gave them a solid start putting on 61 runs. However the spinners of BSNl, led by former Odisha captain Niranjan Behera, put the brakes on their scoring and restricted them to 169 runs in their stipulated 40 overs. Niranjan scalped 5 wickets.
The BSNl innings started on an ominous note, as they lost their first wicket in the space of 4 balls. Although some parity was restored in their innings, the introduction of young Anurag Prusty changed the complexion of the game. Anurag accounted for the prized wickets of Niranjan Behera, Bikash Pati and BBCC Mohapatra and never allowed BSNl to get a partnership going. Despite a fighting knock of 58 runs by Priyabrata Pradhan, BSNl eventually fell short by 26 runs. Bhubaneswar Colts were crowned the new E-league champions. Prizes were given away by Dr. S.K.Singh(Principal Scientist, IMMT), PK Ray (Head, Administration, IMMT) and Manoj K.Choudhury (Principal Consultant, TCS). The prize winners list is as below: The champion team received cash award of Rs25,000 and the runnerup team took home Rs15,000. Niranjan Behera, Anurag Prusty and Tukuna Saho of BSNl team received man of the series, man of the final and best bowler awards respectively. Ashish Kumar Sahu of the champion team and Sarthak Dasmohapatra of TCS were got best batsman and wicketkeeper respectively.Brief Score: Bhubaneswar Colts 169/8 in 40 overs (Sandeep Patnaik 39*, Ashish Sahu 30, Satyajeet Sabat 30, Niranjan Behera 5/35) beat BSNl 143/9 in 40 overs (Priyabrata Pradhan 58, Niranjan Behera 31, Anurag Prusty 3/35, Sandeep Sethi 2/13) by 26 runs.