The Rajasthan cricket team played out a draw against Gujarat at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur in the third round of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 campaign on Tuesday.
Playing their second home game of the season, Rajasthan could manage only 319, in response to Gujarat’s first-innings tally of 335. The visitors reached 314/9 in their second essay, with an overall lead of 330, on the final day when both sides agreed to a draw.
Kukna Ajay Singh was Rajasthan’s star performer with a match haul of 8/209 and a handy 47 with the bat lower down the order in the first innings.
Abhijeet Tomar (77), who top-scored for Rajasthan, along with Arafat Khan and Aniket Choudhary, who picked up five and four wickets, respectively in the match were the other notable performers.
Electing to field first, the Gujarat openers Priyank Panchal (110) and Aarya Desai (86) put on 156 for the opening wicket. However, Arafat and Ajay brought the home side back into the match picking up three wickets each and soon the Gujarat cricket team slipped to 285/8.
The visitors went past the 300-run mark with Jaymeet Patel (61) also chipping in with a half-century. For Rajasthan, Arafat was the pick among the bowlers with a spell of 4/50 while Ajay picked up three and Deepak Chahar ended with two wickets.
After a good start with the bat, Rajasthan endured a mid-innings crisis moving from 126/1 to 140/5 in the space of six overs. Opener Abhijeet and some resistance from the lower order trio of Zubair Ali (44), Ajay (47) and Arafat (42) took Rajasthan close but fell short of Gujarat’s total by 16 runs.
With the first innings lead conceded, Rajasthan came back strongly in the second innings with left-arm seamer Aniket picking up two quick wickets at the start. But a 153-run partnership between Umang Kumar (153*) and Jaymeet (82) for the fifth wicket steadied the Gujarat ship and sealed the fate of the match.
Gujarat won three points for their first-innings lead with Rajasthan getting a solitary point. Rajasthan are currently fourth in Elite Group B of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 points table with 10 points after the first three rounds.
Rajasthan will be up against Hyderabad in their next match of Elite Group B at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur starting on Wednesday, November 6.
Rajasthan vs Gujarat Ranji Trophy brief scores: Gujarat 335/10 (Priyank Panchal 110, Aarya Desai 86; Arafat Khan 4/50, Kukna Ajay Singh 3/102) and 314/9 (Umang Kumar 153*, Jaymeet Patel 82; Kukna Ajay Singh 5/107, Aniket Choudhary 3/37) drew with Rajasthan 319/10 (Abhijeet Tomar 77, Kukna Ajay Singh 47; Jaymeet Patel 3/26, Arzan Nagwaswalla 3/99).
