New Delhi, September 24
India's Ramesh Kumar created history by winning the bronze medal in the freestyle 74kg category at the World Wrestling Championship in Herning, Denmark.

The Uttar Pradesh wrestler did what Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Sushil Kumar failed to achieve, clinching India's first medal in the prestigious event after a gap of 32 years. Kumar defeated Alexandr Burca of Moldova on technical points after the repechage round ended with both the wrestlers tied at the score of 7-7 last night.

Kumar, however, started the bout on a disappointing note, trailing 0-3 after the first period. He then came back strongly in the second session to score two points and then finished off the final period picking up five points as against his opponent's four to finally come out victorious on technical points.

Kumar had earlier defeated Dustin Schlatter of the US 3-2 in the opening round. His next casualty was Great Britain's Michael Grundy, whom he beat 4-2 and then prevailed over Kiril Terziev of Bulgaria 7-4 in the quarterfinal.

Kumar, however, lost out on the gold medal opportunity, going down 0-5 to Chamsulvara Chamsulvarayev of Azerbaijan in the last-four stage to set up a repechage encounter against Burca. The gold in this category was won by Denis Tsargush of Russia.

Earlier, Olympic bronze medallist Sushil Kumar failed to replicate boxer Vijender Singh's feat and lost out on a medal opportunity in the elite event after losing the bronze medal play-off match in the 66kg freestyle category on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in the female style, India's Nirmala Devi lost in the opening round of the 48kg category to Great Britain's Yana Stadnik, while Babita Kumari bowed out in the quarterfinal against Natalia Budu of Moldova in 51kg division. — PTI 

The match between PCA Colts and Air India in progress on Thursday.

Chandigarh, September 24
In the first match at PCA Stadium Mohali PCC won the toss and opted to field. They restricted BPCL to 268 for 6 in 50 Overs Their Innings revolved Onkar Khanvilkar of 124 balls with 12 Fours and 1 Six and skipper 51 of 60 balls with 4 fours and 1 six. U Kaul 31 and S Kotak 29 were the other contributor with the bat. Jaskaran 3 for 57 and V Bhalla 2 for 24 was the main wicket takers for PCC. Replying PCC raised 271 for 5 in 46.3 overs and won by five wickets to log four points.

In the Second match at DAV School Sector 8 Indian Oil Corporation defeated ITC by 91 runs and got five points including a bonus. ITC wining the toss put Indian Oil to bat.Indian Oil Scored 293 for 5 in 50 overs. From 71 for 4 Indian oil Corporation raised their 226 for 5 with Ravikant Shukla 89 of 122 balls and Aditya Tare stitching a partnership of 155 runs for the fifth wicket. Tare remained unbeaten on 102 of 103 balls. Replying ITC were bowled out for 202.

In the third match Air India defeated PCA Colts by three wickets. Batting first PCA Colts Scored 156 for 9 in 50 overs Sarabjit Singh 48 and Robin Singh 28 were the principal scorer for the PCA Colts. Gagandeep 3 for 28 and Sachin Rana 2 for 34 were the main wicket takers for Air India . Replying Air India Scored 159 for 7 in 45.2 overs their innings was propelled by an unbeaten 71 of 98 balls with 8 fours and 1 six by Reetinder Sodhi. Sachin Rana 23 of 37 balls was an able foil to him. Bharat Loomba 4 for 15 and Harmeet Singh 2 for 39 were the main wicket takers for PCA Colts. Reetinder Sodhi was declared Man Of the match.

Jammu, September 24
Almost six years on, and a full-fledged cricket stadium on the lines of PCA Mohali still remains a wild goose chase in the winter capital here. “We have identified a vast piece of land in Bajalta and I hope to see the stadium coming up within two years,” chairman of the controversy-marred Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA), Mohammed Aslam Goni told The Tribune here today.

“For infrastructural development BCCI is bound to pay up to Rs 50 crore to us,” he said in a bid to convey that JKCA had no dearth of funds. “Though the land has not been transferred to us, we have been talking to the revenue minister Raman Bhalla,” he added.

It may be stated here that in absence of a cricket stadium cricketers continue to toil hard at the multi-purpose worn-out MA Stadium. Not only this, even Ranji trophy and other national fixtures, allotted to the state in the past, were held here much to the chagrin of professional players.

Six years back the then Chief Minister and JKCA president Farooq Abdullah had conceived the idea of having a cricket stadium in Jammu on the lines of Mohali. For the purpose land had been identified at Bajalta near Sidhra but thereafter things stalled.

Sources in the JKCA said that cricket’s apex body - BCCI - had also agreed to sanction Rs 8 crores for the construction and development of the stadium but the JKCA so far has failed to avail the advantage.

However, a senior cricketer laughed at the JKCA plans adding, “Forget about a cricket stadium JKCA office bearers don’t have time for the cricketers.”

Jaipur, September 24
The Lalit Modi-Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) dispute has hit the India-Australia ODI series, with the BCCI deciding to shift the venue of the inaugural tie of the seven-match series from Jaipur to Vadodara. The ODI was scheduled to take place in Jaipur on October 25.

In its AGM today, the BCCI told the RCA to sort out the dispute between its two warring groups first before seeking to host an international match in Jaipur. While one faction is led by IAS Sanjay Dixit, who defeated Lalit Modi in RCA polls in March and has support of the state government, the other faction has the backing of Modi.

The two factions were engaged in a bitter tussle ahead of the BCCI AGM over representing the RCA in the crucial meet. Though Dixit attended the BCCI AGM today and tried to persuade the BCCI not to shift the venue for the first ODI, but to no avail. According to sources, the BCCI asked Dixit whether he would be able to rope in his rivals to host the ODI without any glitch, to which he replied in affirmative but the rival faction didn’t agree to join hands with him for the purpose.