Bhubaneswar: The Media XI lifted the 11thedition of Tata Steel Friendship Cup Cricket Tournament tophy, here on Sunday. The media team defeated the BureaucratsXI by 6 wickets.
SukeshNayakof Media XI was awarded as the best batsman, J. D Pati of Bureaucrat XI as best bowler, Debi Biswal of Bureaucrat XI as best all-rounder, Manoj Mahapatra of Media XI as best wicketkeeper, Sachidananda Rout of Tata Steel as best fielder. Similarly, Man of the Match of the first, second and final match was given to SukeshNayak of Media XI, Debi PriyaBiswal of Bureaucrat XI and Faizal Aliof Media XI respectively.
The state chief secretary, AP Padhi, inaugurated the Tournament, here at Kalinga Stadium. The state sports minister, Chandra SarathiBehera, commissioner commercial tax Saswat Mishra, The Statesman bureau chief K. Ravi, Tata Steel Kalinganagar vice president(opration) Rajiv Kumar, vice president project Gopalpur ArunMisra, chief resident executive ManikantaNaik were present on the occasion.
Earlier, the first semi-final of the tournament was played between the Leaders XI and Media XI.Batting first the leaders XI managed to score 58 runs in 10 overs with loss of 10 wickets. The Media XI won the match in 6 overs with SukeshNayak scoring 22 and became the first team to enter the final.
Similarly, Bureaucrat XIand Tata Steel XI clashed it in the second semi-final. Batting first Tata Steel team managed to score 66 runs in 10 over. Sudhir Mehta of Tata Steel scored 22 run. Debi PriyaBiswal of Bureaucrat XI claimed 3 wickets for his side. Debi Priya Biswal also scored 44 from 21 ball and their team reached the target in 7 over with loss of 4 wickets.
The final match was played between the Bureaucrat XI & Media XI. Batting First Bureaucrat XI was able to Score 88 runs in their full quota of 12 over with loss of 7 wickets. JD Pati was the highest run getter with 19 runs. From Media team Ashok Sethi claimed 2 wickets. Chasing a target of 89 runs ,media XI reached the target in 11.4 overs and become the champion of Tata Steel Friendship Cup Cricket-2017.
Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Kumar Patsani, Bhubaneswar(North) MLA Priyadarshi Mishra, principal secretary to chief minister Rajesh Verma, secretary electronics & IT Ashok Meena gave away the trophies to the winner and runners up teams.
