Cuttack: The inaugural edition of the Orissa Premier Badminton League (OPBL) will be played January 19 to 21 next year, organizing secretary Kamal Das announced here Saturday. The three-day tournament will be played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium here.
The tournament will have eight teams who will be divided into two groups. The top two teams from each group will make it to the knockout stages. The teams participating are ABC Warriers, Barabati Stars, Barbil Tigers, Falcon Fighters, Dhenkanal Defenders, Kalinga Strikers, LBN Lions and Puri Smashking. One hundred and twenty players have registered for the auction out of which 88 will go under the hammer for the eight teams.
“The league is first of its kind tournament in Orissa and we are expecting top class badminton in January. The state is coming up as a top class sporting hub in the country and I am sure badminton will also provide a huge fillip,” Kamal said.
Juvenile ease into quarters
Juvenile Club entered the quarterfinals of the Puspalata Garabadu Masters cricket tournament defeating Pragati Sporting Club by 20 runs here in Bhubaneswar, Saturday.
Put into bat first, Juvenile posted 176/4 in their 20 overs riding on a half century by man of the match Subhash Singh (84). He was well-supported by Girija Mishra (21) and Debasis Samantray (20) down the order. Neel Hora picked up two wickets for Pragati.
In reply Pragati could manage just 126/5. Achyut Das (45) was the top scorer for Pragati. For Juvenile Suraj Singh, Pabitra Routray, Manoj Das and Prasenjit Shetty got one wicket each.
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