The girls’ hockey team performed well consistently, but the state’s cricket team was a big disappointment. Odisha players were also in action on the rugby field as well as the tennis court last week. Many events are lined up for the upcoming week
Football league
The Football Association of Odisha is organising a Women’s Football League that was inaugurated on Tuesday at the Bidanasi Ground in Cuttack. Eight teams have been divided into two groups for the tournament. While group A includes Odisha Police, Radhagobinda Club, Mangala Club and Radharamana Club, group B includes East Coast Railway, Sunshine Club, Chauliaganj Club and Chand Club.
The inaugural day saw matches between Odisha Police and Mangala Club and Radhagobinda Club and Radharamana Club.
The group B matches will be held on Wednesday. The tournament will conclude on October 17.
Meanwhile, the final of the first Nakul Choudhury Memorial Football Tournament organised by Kishore Club at B.O.S.E playground in Cuttack was played between SAI (Cuttack) and Bidanasi Club. SAI won the match 3-0. The man of the match award went to Somanth Nayak, SAI, while Sanatan Lohar of the same team was declared man of the series award. Anil Kumar Jena of Bidanasi Club was named best goalkeeper.
Cricket talk
The state cricket team put up a disappointing performance at the All-India Dhruv Pandove Trophy U-19 Cricket Tournament. The Odisha team drew their matches against Bengal and Punjab without securing any points, whereas the rival teams gained two points each.
However, there was some good news for cricket fans in the state.
Odisha’s Nataraj Behera will lead the 15-member East Zone squad against South Zone in the Duleep Trophy tie in Visakhapatanam, which begins on October 14.
Basant Mohanty and Alok Mangaraj, pacers from the state, and all-rounder Biplab Samantray have also found a place in the East Zone team.
The state women’s cricket selection committee chose a team of 16 U-19 women cricketers of the Odisha Cricket Association.
They will represent the U-19 team in the Inter State Women’s U-19 One-Day Tournament East Zone League - 2012-13 to be held from October 11 to 17 in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
Swagatika Rath will lead the team.
Hockey glory
Odisha girls have made it to the quarterfinals of the second Junior National Championship, which is on at RAI, Sonipat (Haryana), from October 1 to 12. Continuing their brilliant performance, the team won all its matches in group D, beating teams from Pondicherry, Gujarat and Karnataka. In the last match against Karnataka the state team won 5-2.
Ace hockey player Anupa Barla of the state, who is a part of the national team, scored a goal in India’s match against Wales that the national team won (4-0) to emerge seventh at the Champions Challenge I hockey tournament in Dublin.
On the ball
The Khurda District Table Tennis Association will host a three day state-level tournament.
The seventh edition of the All-Odisha Ranking Table Tennis Tournament will be conducted at the Shahid Nagar Indoor stadium. The tournament will feature matches in singles, doubles and mixed doubles segments in men, women, boys and girls categories. The event begins from October 12.
Tennis champ
Rithvik Anand bagged a double at the All-India Tennis Association (AITA) 50K Men’s Ranking Tennis Tournament organised by Odisha Tennis Association at KIIT, Bhubaneswar.
The Tamil Nadu player won the singles final against Azhar Md of Bengal (6-3, 6-1), while along with top seeded state mate Vinod Sridhar beat the duo of Neeraj Choudhury (Madhya Pradesh) and Abhinansu Borthakur (Assam) in the doubles final.
The same venue is now hosting an U-12 and U-16 girls and boys tournament. Close to 100 players are taking part in the event.
