Ludhiana, May 13
Ludhiana players dropped as many as 15 catches and lost to Bathinda on the basis of first-innings-lead in the Punjab State Inter-District Cricket Tournament (u-17) match, which was concluded at Satish Chander Dawan Government College ground, here, today.

Replying to Ludhiana’s first innings total of 252 runs, Bathinda resumed their eassy at 25 for no loss and went on to score 265 runs after losing nine wickets in the stipulated 95 overs.

Their innings revolved around Vikas Lamba and Raj Kumar who scored 84 and 65 runs, respectively. Rahul Jaitley contributed 30 runs while Deepak made 17.

For Ludhiana, Rahul Singla, off-spinner, claimed six wickets in 43 overs conceding 106 runs. Akhil Aggarwal chipped in with one wicket without conceding any run while Prince and Ashish too caught one wicket each after giving away 61 and 16 runs, respectively.

Ludhiana, May 13
The local sports fraternity honoured Harish Rai Dhanda, an MLA from Ludhiana West, on his becoming chief parliamentary secretary, Punjab. He was felicitated at a function organised jointly by the Ludhiana District Badminton Association and Ludhiana Badminton Academy (LBA), here today.

M.K Chopra, president, LBA apprised Dhanda of association's activities. He also dwelt in detail on various activities such as free training being provided to the budding shuttlers, periodical camps for the trainees, adoption of an upcoming player- Karanveer from Sahnewal, scholarship to an international player, Raj Kumar, son of a care taker at Shastri Badminton Hall.

Chopra further informed that the trainees of LBA had excelled at state, national and as well as international level tournaments. Raj Kumar represented India in an international meet at China while Lakhwinder Singh had made his presence felt in the state championship besides Sachin and Mitash bagged titles (u-10) in the state championship held recently.

Chopra expressed gratitude towards Dhanda for his initiative in revoking the electricity in the Guru Nanak Sports Complex here. Representatives from other disciplines- cricket, kick boxing, weightlifting, hockey and football along with former international sports persons were also present at the function.