Opener scored 159 and played the winning hand as the hosts defeated Services by five wickets
Opener Amit Gautam smashed a match winning century to help Team Rajasthan topple Services by five wickets. His marathon knock of 159 that carried the weight of Rajasthan’s batting was a monument of technique and application that was laced with 6 sixes and 13 fours. The hosts chased down the intimidating target of 357 on the final day of the group C match at SMS Stadium on Thursday. It was the third highest successful run chase in the history of Ranji Trophy. Before this, it was in the 2008-09 season that Assam scored 371 against Services and in 1989-90 Rajasthan hunted down 360 to defeat Vidarbha.
The centurion Gautam said that he did not let pressure get on to him, but it was the responsibility that made him rise on the occasion. Starting from the overnight score of 95 with all wickets intact, Chetan Bist (78 off 229) and Gautam collaborated further and coalesced a crucial partnership of 170 runs that stood broken just before the lunch break. Captain Mahipal Lomror’s (4 off 6) wicket followed soon after.
Suddenly the pressure came back pounding on Rajasthan, but Robin Bist and Ashok Menaria’s cameos of 30 and 36 runs respectively ensured the chance of victory was not squandered away. Once they were back to pavilion, Rajesh Bishnoi and Tajinder Singh Dhillon added another 25 runs to help the team cross the finish line.
Rajasthan captain gave credit to perfect execution of plan by the batsmen. “Everything that we had decided was executed well by our batters. The wicket was low and slow today and everyone took on the challenge head on,” Lomror added. Rajasthan will play its next game against Jharkhand on November 20 in Ranchi and Lomror feels that as a team they need to focus more on getting the partnerships going.
Winning Note
- It was the third highest successful run chase in the history of Ranji Trophy. Before this, it was in the 2008-09 season that Assam scored 371 against Services and in 1989-90 Rajasthan hunted down 360 to defeat Vidarbha.
- On Thursday, Team Rajasthan chased down the intimidating target of 357 on the final day.
Perfect Execution
- Rajasthan captain gave credit to perfect execution of plan by the batsmen. “Everything that we had decided was executed well by our batters. The wicket was low and slow today and everyone took on the challenge head on,” Lomror added.
- Rajasthan will play its next game against Jharkhand on November 20 and Lomror feels that as a team they need to focus more on getting the partnerships going.
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 "Rajesh Bishnoi-Amit Gautam")
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