Cuttack-A retain Kalahandi Cup; Rourkela finish runners-up

Last year`s joint-champions Cuttack-A retained the trophy in the Kalahandi Cup Senior Inter-District Cricket Tournament by virtue of taking an 86-run first innings lead against Rourkela in the four-day final, which ended in a draw at Ravenshaw University ground here today.
Cuttack-A took the first-innings lead by declaring at 362 for nine, in reply to a respectable total of 276 by Rourkela, who elected to bat first after winning the toss. Rourkela declared their second innings at 262 for six and chasing 177 for an outright win, Cuttack-A reached 81 for two before both the captains agreed for the draw.
Biplab Samantaray, Niranjan Behera, Bikash Pati, Deepak Behera and Subham Nayak made notable contributions in the triumph for Cuttack-A, while captain Ansuman Gope, Govind Poddar, Ranjit Singh, Alok Pradhan and Asish Mitra put up impressive performance for runners-up Rourkela.In the four-day semifinals, Cuttack-A crushed Bhubaneswar A by 10 wickets, while came from behind to upset Cuttack-B by 55 runs.