Cuttack: The skies opened up on Saturday afternoon, forcing the Rourkela Steelers versus Cuttack Panthers match in the inaugural Odisha Pro T20 League (OPTL) 2025 to be abandoned at the Barabati Stadium.
It was the first washout in the six-match-old league featuring six teams. Both teams were awarded 2 points.
On Friday evening, Gourav Choudhary went into the record books by becoming the first ever centurion in the franchise-based T20 league.
Choudhary performed a one-man demolition job for Bhubaneswar Tigers to set up a 37-run victory over Keonjhar Miners. The opener smashed 113 off 56 deliveries to help Bhubaneswar post a formidable 198/8 in their allotted 20 overs. In reply, Keonjhar Miners were bowled out for 161, with Suryakant Pradhan and Jayant Behera bagging 3 wickets each.
Choudhary had top-scored for Bhubaneswar in their first match, too, but the team lost in a thrilling last-ball finish against Cuttack Panthers.
“Today’s century was very important for me and for my team because in the last match also we had put up a good score, but still we lost. The players were a little down mentally, but today we did well. It feels really good, both in terms of the game and the enjoyment of playing,” Man-of-the-Match Choudhary said.