Ranji final - Bist crosses 1,000 runs, Rajasthan await trophy

Chennai : 

The loss of their openers and captain had little impact on Rajasthan, who at lunch on the final day were 125 for 3, with Robin Bist on 67 having become the first Rajasthan batsman to cross 1,000 runs in a Ranji Trophy season.

With one hand already on the Ranji Trophy, Rajasthan opted to bat stodgily after Aakash Chopra's aggression undid him early in the morning session, and Bist's fourth half-century of the tournament was of only statistical value as the final tapered out on the fifth day.

Robin Bist crossed 1,000 runs this season as Rajasthan took lunch at 125/3 on day five.

Having resumed on an overnight 21 for 0, Rajasthan lost Chopra in the ninth over of the morning. After consecutive streaky boundaries off seamer Jagannathan Kaushik - including a very difficult chance dropped by Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps - Chopra's attempted pull shot was top-edged back into the bowler’s hands.

Promoted to No. 3, Bist entered and slapped three authoritative boundaries as he sped to a run-a-ball 16, but the introduction of spin from both ends slowed his approach. Vineet Saxena appeared in the same mode as during his first-innings crawl to 257, but was beaten all ends up by Ramaswamy Prasanna for a 69-ball 13 as he missed a straightforward defensive shot.