Bilap Samantray (in yellow), captain of Katak Barabati Tigers, tosses the coin before the first semi-final against JSP Sparks. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Bhubaneswar/ Cuttack, June 10: A huge crowd thronged the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack to witness the first semi-final clash of the Orissa Premier League (OPL).

Champions of Group B, Katak Barabati Tigers (Cuttack) met the runners-up of Group A, JSP Sparks (Jagatsinghpur) today.

The Sparks posted 134 runs for the loss of six wickets in 20 overs. They had lost two early, crucial wickets in the first three overs in the form of openers, Om Bikash Nayak (0) and Deepak Behera (12). After another three batsmen were sent back to the pavilion, Sameer Mohanty steadied the innings with a half-century. He remained not out on 60. Bibhudutta Panda claimed two wickets.

Till reports last came in, the Cuttack team had not come in to bat.

Earlier, the JSP Sparks won the toss and opted to bat first on a pacey strip, which would initially help seamers. As it wears on, it is likely to turn into a batsmen’s paradise. The Barabati Stadium is the home ground of the Cuttack team.

In order to make the match livelier, the Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) has installed a giant electronic scorecard besides the manual scorecard to provide ball-by-ball updates to the spectators at the stadium. This match was telecast live on DD Sports. The other semi-final, play-off and final would also be telecast on the same channel.

Yesterday, Western Samurai (Rourkela) beat Angul Tuskers by a narrow margin of nine runs in a nail-biting finish at Cuttack. Skipper Nataraj Behera’s unbeaten century and a stellar support role by Ranjit Singh (55) helped Rourkela put up a mammoth score of 176 runs in 20 overs, which is, so far, the highest total of OPL.

In reply, the Tuskers made a brilliant start and were going great guns. However, swashbuckling knocks by Sujit Lenka (64 off 33 balls) and Milan Sahu (44 off 29) went in vain as the Angul team fell short of the target by just nine runs. Chitta Mishra (3/21), Nataraj and Amit Das (two wickets each) were among the wicket takers.

With their loss, the Jagatsinghpur side moved up to second place and made its way into the semis. In the other match at Bhubaneswar, Berhampur Bhanja Veers suffered a six-wicket defeat at the hands of Puri Emperors. Batting first, Berhampur were bundled out cheaply for 89 runs in 19.1 overs. Chasing the score, the Puri team achieved the target in 18.4 overs. Ajay Rout was the highest scorer with 39 runs.

The teams which failed to make it to the semi-finals are Bhubaneswar, Puri, Berhampur, Dhenkanal, Angul and Keonjhar. Tomorrow, the leaders of Group A, Western Samurai (Rourkela) will take on runners-up of Group B, Balasore Baghas at the Barabati.