Diptayan solo lead in Open Chess
Bhubaneswar: Top seeded IM Diptayan Ghose of West Bengal bagged six points each and become the solo leader by the end of sixth round in the 2nd Triple ‘C’ All India FIDE Rating Chess Championship at Puri on Monday. IM Chakravarthi Reddy M, IM CRG Krishna and Gusain Himal gathered 5.5 points each and jointly placed in the second place. local favorite IM Swayams Mishra scored five points and placed in the third place along with six others. As many as 209 players, including 41 women players are participating in the nine round tournament which is featuring total cash award of Rs 5.05 lakh. Eight IM and one WGM, FM, CM, WCM are fighting for top honour.
Cuttack take on huge 306-run lead in K’handi Cup
Bhubaneswar: A Brilliant 131 runs opening partnership between Bikash Pati and Souvagya Mishra guided home favourites Cuttack-A took a 306-run first-innings lead on the second day of the four-day final match against Rourkela in the Kalahandi Cup Senior Inter-District Cricket Tournament at the Sunshine Ground here on Monday. Put into bat, Rourkela were bundled out for 92 with Soumendra Das and Dhiraj Singh pocketing four and three wickets, respectively. In reply, after the magnificent opening partnership, middle order batsman Aravind Singh joined the run flow by scoring 114 runs and Cuttack-A scored 398 in the first innings. Trailing with 306 runs Rourkela scored 28 without losing any wicket at day two stumps. Cuttack-A qualified for the final by taking a first-innings lead of 273 runs against defending champions Bhubaneswar-A in their three-day semifinal, which ended in draw. The other semifinal between Rourkela and Bhubaneswar-B also ended in draw at the DRIEMS Stadium in Tangi. But as the first innings of both the sides could not completed, Rourkela qualified for the final by virtue of having higher net run rate (1.508 vs 0.971). At Sunshine Ground: Rourkela 92/10 in 39.4 overs (Gopal Ram 25 n.o; Soumendra Das 4/20, Dhiraj Singh 3/5, Alok Sahoo 2/42) and Rourkela 28/0 in 13 overs vs Cuttack-A 398/10 in 116.1 overs (Bikash Pati 72, Souvagya Mishra 77, Arvind Singh 114, Rajesh Dhupper 65;Umesh Yadav 5/57, Gobind Poddar 3/70).
Utkal, IIIT win SPl Cricket
Bhubaneswar: Utkal University crushed Centurion University by nine wickets while IIIT, Bhubaneswar outplayed Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) by 33 runs in the SOA Premier league (SPl) T-20 Cricket Championship at the SOA Stadium here on Monday. Winning the toss and electing to bat, Centurion could score 91 for 9 with Parikshit contributing 23 (5x4) while Prabhu captured three wickets conceding 22 runs. Utkal gathered the required runs losing one wicket. Om Bikash hit 51 of 31 balls which included eight fours and two sixes.
In the other tie, IIIT chose to bat first and hit up 122 for eight with Chandrasekhar being the highest contributor with 39 (7x4). For BPUT, Amit took three wickets. BPUT were bowled out for 89. For IIIT, Satyajit captured four wickets conceding 22 runs while Himesh (33) was the top scorer for the losers. Brief scores: Centurion University 91/9 in 20 overs (Parikshit 23, Prabhu 3/22) lost to Utkal University 95/1 (Om Bikash 51, Sameer 1/22) by 9 wickets. IIIT, Bhubaneswar 122/8 in 20 overs (Chandrasekhar 39, Amit 3/22) beat BPUT 89/10 (Himesh 33, Satyajit 4/22) by 33 runs.
Sushanta bags double crown in Secretariat Open Badminton
Bhubaneswar: local player Sushanta Kumar Rout emerged champion by defeating Sapan Kumar Sasmal of Cuttack by 2-1 in the singles final, he and his partner Chandi Prasad Das bagged the doubles title by eliminating Balasoe dou Jay Prakash Singh and Samit Misra 2-0 in the 4th Secretariat All Odisha Open Employee’s Open Badminton Tournament at Sahid Nager Indoor Hall here on Sunday. Similarly, in veteran singles title grabbed by Bijaya Kumar Moharana of Bhubaneswar by out playing PK Khadenga of Koraput 2-0. However the doubles trophy claimed by local pair Kamala Das and Subhasish Sahoo edging out Mahesh Kukreja and Gourisankar Bisi of Kalahandi 2-0. Sports and Youth Services director Ananta Kishore Jena gave away the prizes as the chief guest of the closing ceremony. Among others, OSSBA working president lalit Mohan Pattnaik, secretary Chhitta Ranjan Rout, joint secretary Niranjan Pattnaik and Sasanka Sekhar Mohapatra were present.