Atish Jena of Western Samurai (Rourkela) plays a shot against Berhampur Bhanja Veers at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Bhubaneswar, June 6: Bhubaneswar Jaguars came up with a modest score of 115 against Balasore Baghas in their last match of the OPL tournament at VSS Stadium, Samablpur. None of the batsmen could convert good starts into big scores as the Balasore bowlers devastated the middle-order and scalped a total of nine wickets. As per latest updates, Balasore were 16 for one in three overs.

In the encounter against Berhampur Bhanja Veers at the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack, Western Samurai (Rourkela) posted 113 runs in 20 overs. Anshuman Gope was the highest scorer with 26 runs. Niranjan Behera took two wickets while Devendra Choudhary claimed one. Till reports last came in, Berhampur were 10 for one in two overs.

In the third match, Cooperative Kings Dhenkanal skipper, Shiv Sunder Das’ half century took his team to 119 for nine in 20 overs against Kashvi Power Rangers (Keonjhar) at the Railway Stadium here. Soumendra Das and P.R. Sinha scalped three wickets each while Partha Samal took two for the Keonjhar team. The team was reeling at nine for two in three overs.

Angul Tuskers avenged an earlier loss to JSP Sparks (Jagatsinghpur) with a six-wicket victory over them at the Railway Stadium yesterday. Riding a splendid show on a difficult batting pitch, the Tuskers bounced back to keep their semi-final chances alive in the tournament.

The Sparks had set a target of 126 runs, with Subhit Biswal scoring 45 runs and Rashmi Ranjan Das, 21. The Angul team reached the target comfortably by losing four wickets.

Aravind Singh (36) and Saeed Moinuddin (41*) put up a strong fourth wicket partnership stand of 62 runs to guide the Tuskers to a much deserving win. Both the batsmen were jointly given the Man of the Match award.

In the other match at Cuttack, Western Samurai’s Nataraj Behera played a captain’s knock to help his team coast to an exciting 37-run win over Berhampur yesterday. After an early wicket loss, Behera led from the front with a blazing 64-ball 95 (not out) in the “replay” match against Berhampur.

The skipper smashed 11 boundaries and two huge sixes to add 139 runs for the second wicket with Ranjit Singh (51) that took the Samurais to a competitive 159 for three in 20 overs. Defending the big score, they bowled out the Bhanja Veers for 122 runs in 19.5 overs. Basant Mohanty three wickets for 17 runs.

The points table, as updated after Sunday, stands like this: JSP Sparks (Jagatsinghpur) is leading Group A with eight points and a net run rate (NRR) of +1.53, followed by Rourkela (seven), Angul (six) and Puri (five). Berhampur is at the lowest position of the table with two points.

Cuttack is heading Group B with 12 points and NRR of 0. 92. Balasore has seven points, Dhenkanal has six and Bhubaneswar, four. The Keonjhar team is placed at the bottom with three points.