The Rourkela Steel Plant team with the trophy. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Jan. 10: Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) retained the Inter-steel Plants Cricket Championship by posting a confident 35-run win over host Tata Steel in the final played at Keenan Stadium today.

The visitors had clinched the title by putting it across Tata Steel in the last edition of the championship held at Burnpur.

Jamshedpur Utilities Services Company (Jusco) managing director Sanjeev Paul the chief guest, handed over the prizes.

Senior officials of the Tata Steel sports department were also present.

Batting first, RSP scored 208 for eight in the stipulated 45 overs and later dismissed Tata Steel for 173 in 41.3 overs.

A. Barik of the visiting outfit hammered a superb 59, which contained four well-timed hits to the fence.

He got good support from R. Maharana, who scored a handy 50 with three boundaries.

The host tried hard to dislodge Barik and Maharana but the job became all that more difficult on a docile wicket. Both batsmen stroked their way to fifties.

Singles were scored comfortably and the occasional boundaries only swelled the RSP score.

Though Tata Steel managed to see the back of Barik and Maharana, it soon came across trouble when Nataraj Behera took strike.

For Tata Steel, Purshottam Sahu and Sujit Roy claimed three wickets each while Junaid Ali picked one victim.

Barring left-handed Ravish Kumar, who scored 38 with three boundaries, and skipper Deepak Kumar (23), none of the other batsmen succeeded in coming up with good scores.

The home side batsmen posed no problems to RSP bowlers who maintained a tidy line and length throughout the steel major?s innings.

With RSP bowlers calling the shots from the start, the match became more troublesome for Tata Steel.

C.D. Sunil bowled exceedingly well on a flat wicket and emerged with a rich haul of four wickets for 29 runs.