Bhubaneswar: Spandan Mohanty’s (90, 79b) brilliant knock and Sekhar Das’s (4/8) outstanding spell with the ball ensured Sekhar Sporting thump Scan Sporting by nine runs in a low-scoring encounter and advance into the quarterfinals of the IInd Rameswar Cup U-19 cricket tournament here, Tuesday.
Sent into bat first, Sekhar rode Spandan’s knock to post 138 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 25 overs. Bikram Mohapatra (15) was the only other batsman to register a double digit score after Spandan. Anurag Mishra (2/36) and Sambit Baral (2/15) bowled well for Scan.
In reply, the Scan batters started well but failed to capitalise on that as their middle and lower-order collapsed against Sekhar’s bowling and were bowled out for 129 runs in 18.1 overs. Manoj Sahu (41, 20b) and Sambit Baral (33, 10b) were the only ones to offer some resistance with the bat for Scan. Soyamansu Pati (3/39) proved to be an able ally for Sekhar.