Sushil eases to gold; Sakshi, Geeta excel
Indore: Back in action after three-long years, two-time Olympic-medallist Sushil Kumar took less than three minutes to bag a gold medal as three of his rivals gave him a walk over in men's 74kg freestyle competition of the National Wrestling championship here on Friday. Sushil battled for just 2 minutes and 33 seconds in total on the mat as he fought only two of his initial round bouts before three of his opponents — in the quarterfinal, semifinal and final — gave him a walk over. Meanwhile, India's lone woman Olympic medal winner Sakshi Malik and popular 'Dangal girl' Geeta Phogat also bagged a gold medal each in their respective weight categories of women's wrestling on the second day of the marquee domestic event. Geeta beat Ravita in the final of the 59 kg category. Sakshi finished on the top of the podium after posting a dominating 10-0 victory over Pooja of Haryana in women's 62kg, while Geeta also clinched the yellow metal. Even Geeta's husband Pawan Kumar also managed to finish on top in 86kg.
Pant, Rana take Delhi to 260/4
New Delhi: Rishabh Pant showed his natural flair for strokeplay with an attractive 99 in company of a reliable Nitish Rana (110 batting) as Delhi were comfortably placed 260 for 4 against Maharashtra on truncated first day of the fifth round encounter of Ranji Trophy. In all only 62 overs of play was possible after light deteriorated in the final session. Pant, who has not had any significant contribution during the current season did not get bogged down by the fall of wickets as his 99 off 110 balls had eight boundaries and six huge sixes. Pant-Rana duo came together in the 16th over with Delhi in a spot of bother at 55 for 3 with Gautam Gambhir (1), Anuj Rawat (20) and Dhruv Shorey (7) and added 168 runs for the fourth wicket.
Bengal bowl out Punjab for 147
Amritsar: Bengal bowlers showed enormous discipline to skittle out Punjab for a paltry 147 before reaching 76 for no loss as they completely dominated the proceedings during a Ranji Trophy group D encounter, here on Friday. Harbhajan Singh playing his first four-day game in over 21 months, will hardly be pleased with the performance of his batsmen as they could only play 46 overs during the day. Opener Shubhman Gill scored 63 off 102 balls with nine boundaries but none of the Punjab batsmen could cross individual score of 20. Medium pacer B Amit (3/31 in 9 overs) and left-arm spinner Pradipta Pramanik (3/41 in 17 overs) were the wreckers in-chief. When Bengal batted, their young openers — left-handed Abhishek Raman (42 batting) and Abhimanyu Easwaran (33 batting) safely negotiated the Punjab attack.
All set for JK Tyre Racing C'ship finale
greater noida: The 20th JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship is poised for a spectacular finish, with Anindith Reddy and Chittesh Mandody looking strong favourites to run away with the Euro JK 17 and lGB 4 titles at the Buddh International Circuit here over the weekend. A complete bouquet of entertainment has been etched for the grande finale on Sunday. Defending champion Anindith from Hyderabad will be the cynosure though. He is leading the table in the Euro JK 17, the country's most prestigious racing class featuring FB02 cars that can touch 240kmph, with 96 points. He needs just two good races to seal the title once again. He showed his form in the last race, winning two and finishing second in another to surge into the lead.
Goffin beats Thiem, to face Federer in s/f
lONDON: David Goffin is through to face Roger Federer in the last four of the ATP Finals after defeating Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-1 on Friday. From 0-3, 0-15 down in the opening set, the No 7-ranked Goffin won 15 consecutive points to take control of the match, and never looked back. Goffin will face Federer on Saturday. Grigor Dimitrov and Jack Sock meet in the other semifinal. Goffin, who was coming off the back of a 74-minute thrashing by Dimitrov, was this time able to recover from a slow start. Having turned around the first set, he broke Thiem, hampered by a left knee injury, three times in the second to seal a convincing victory.
Agencies