Dubai: United Odia Cricket Association, UAE successfully organized the final match between Dubai Odia and Kalinga Bira in the fourth edition of the Odisha Cup cricket tournament on 20th Jan, Friday at the Sharjah English School stadium. An energetic and inspired Dubai Odia(DO) won the coveted Odisha Cup tournament on their third appearance in the final and broke the jinx in a nerve-wrecking final to script a glorious new chapter in the history of Odisha Cup Cricket Tournament. Electing to bat first after winning the toss DO set a target of 113 runs in the allotted 20 overs which is a record in a final match of Odisha Cup, DO bowlers were disciplined in the first 10 overs as Kalinga Bira batsmen struggled to find desired boundaries. Despite opener Nibas’s heroic performance of 47 runs KB fell short of the target by two runs. Akif Sayed of DO was adjudged man of the match for his brilliant bowling figures of 2 wickets for 24 runs in 4 overs. The enthusiastic, jam-packed crowd at the Sharjah English School stadium erupted in wild celebrations when DO fast bowler Ataullah bowled a super bowl to Kalinga Bira captain Birendra when KB required 4 runs off the last ball of the match to win but all he could manage was a single on that delivery to give DO their biggest cricketing moment and crown themselves the champions of Odisha Cup 2016-17. Following is the list of awards distributed to players for their superlative performances in the tournament: 1- Man of the series Alok Chandra of Kalinga Bira for 94 runs and 10 wickets 2- Best Batsman Sushant Mallick of Kalinga Bira for scoring 127 runs 3- Best bowler Rehan Kumar of Dubai Odia for taking 12 wickets 4- Best wicket keeper Saifur of POSA UOCA General Secretary Debi Prasad Dora welcomed the chief guests Mr. Mohammed Bushager, managing partner of Bushager group and Mr. Rashid Al Suwaidi, Area Manager, Ministry of Education before the final match. The matches were witnessed by the enthusiastic Odia community of UAE along with some esteemed guests like Captain Soumya Pattnaik, Chris Melville, Phil, Amiya Mishra, Ashok Panda, Pradeep Rath, Sushanta Panda, Kishore Das, Pratap Sahoo, Sailaj Das and Tushar Sahoo to name a few. There were some attractive games on offering for children to enjoy the day. Overall UAE Odia community enjoyed the day with loads of fun and entertaining cricket. General Secretary Debi Prasad Dora supervised and conducted the match and at the closing ceremony he expressed his gratitude to the honorable chief guests, guests and all the spectators for attending in large numbers and making the Odisha Cup final a gala celebration.
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