Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 21: Ashutosh Padhy of Orissa finished runner-up in the Junior National Snooker Championships which concluded Thursday in Indore. The Orissa lad lost his final group league match by 4-2 frames against Ishpreet Chadha of Maharashtra.
It was a commendable show by Ashutosh who played very well in the five-player league winning three matches and losing two. In the match played Thursday, the Maharashtra cueist dominated the first two frames. But Ashutosh came back strongly and reduced the margin to 2-1. However, he could not maintain the momentum.
Later in the day, in his second match of the Senior Billiards tournament, which is simultaneously on at Indore, Ashutosh lost 1-4 to Arun Agarwal of Maharashtra. In spite of the defeat, Ashutosh hit a break of 152, the highest of the match.
The Senior National Snooker Championship starts Friday. Ashutosh and Nishant Biswal have qualified directly for the event being the No. 1 and 2 player of Orissa. However, former state champion Subrat Das will have to play the qualifiers and he will need to win all his four matches to enter the main draw.
Huge win for Nayagarh
Nayagarh scripted an emphatic 10 wickets victory over Bargarh in a match of the OCA U-16 Inter-District Super League cricket at the BOSE Ground in Cuttack, Thursday.
In other matches, Rourkala defeated Koraput by eight wickets and Sambalpur triumphed ovver Nuapada by four wickets.
Brief scores
(At BOSE Ground): Bargarh 143 and 93 (Dyani Kalas 3/29) lost to Nayagarh 211 and 26/0 by 10 wickets.
(At SCB Ground): Koraput 115 and 111 (Himanshu Singh 5/16, Saswat Rout 5/16) lost to Rourkela 159 and 70/2 by eight wickets.
(At Nimpur Ground): Nuapada 188 and 57 (Anish Dash 6/14) lost to Sambalpur 146 and 100/6 by four wickets.
(At Ravenshaw Ground): Bhadrak 188 and 107/5 (Amod Majhi 3/31) vs KIIT 159. Match drawn.