Vadodara, Jan 15: Rajasthan beat Baroda in the Ranji Trophy final today to win their first ever title in India’s premier domestic competition. Rashmi Parida, who scored a half-century in both Rajasthan innings, was declared Man-of-the-Match for his efforts.
Earlier, Rajasthan began the day already in control of the match. On Day 4, Parida and Ashok Menaria had brought stability to Rajasthan’s second innings by remaining unbeaten in a 140-run partnership after the top order had suffered a collapse with the score reading 61/4. On Day 5, Menaria brought up his century before falling to Aditya Waghmode for 101, while Parida was trapped lbw by Bhargav Bhatt for an individual score of 89.
At 232/6, with a 33-run lead from the first innings also in their favour, Rajasthan’s lower order could have batted with abandon. But they hung around and made Baroda toil for the remaining four wickets. Each of Rajasthan’s last five batsmen posted double- digit scores, with wicketkeeper Rohit Jhalani, who batted at No. 11 today, remaining unbeaten at an individual score of 49.
Deflated perhaps by Rajasthan’s lower order heroics, Baroda’s second innings began in disarray. Deepak Chahar dismissed three of their top-order batsmen, Kedar Devdhar (5), Waghmode (4) and Swapnil Singh (2), while Jaykishan Kolsawala fell to Pankaj Singh for 13. At 28/4, with very little time left in the day, Baroda surrendered the title to Rajasthan.
It was a historic first win for Rajasthan as they have finished runners-up in this competition on eight previous occasions.
Brief Score: Rajasthan 1st innings 394 in 147.1 overs (Robin Bist 77, Bhargav Bhatt 5/103) and 2nd innings 341/4 in 129.1 overs (Ashok Menaria 101, Murtuja Vahora 4/94) beat Baroda 1st innings 361 in 137.3 overs (Pinal Shah 77, Deepak Chahar 4/79) and 2nd innings 28/4 in 14 overs (Deepak Chahar 3/15)
