Rajasthan hold on for draw with UP

The match between Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur ended in a draw, with Uttar Pradesh consolidating their position on the points table at third place. Rajasthan began the day with the openers having put on 15 overnight. Within three overs the first wicket went down when Siddharth Saraf was caught behind off the bowling of RP Singh.

Vineet Saxena and Ashok Menaria enjoyed a brief stand of 38 before Imtiaz Ahmed had Saxena bowled. Menaria went on to hit 40 before he too suffered the same fate. Robin Bist, Rajesh Bishnoi and Chetan Bist hung around long enough to register fifties and force the draw.

Rajasthan finished the final day with 253 for 6, with Chetan Bist not out on 61. Imtiaz had best figures of 3 for 58.

It took exactly 19.5 overs for Bengal to wrap up the Services first innings for 304 and ensure three points by virtue of 127-run first innings lead from their fifth round group B encounter played at the Airforce ground in Palam today. Saurasish Lahiri was the most successful bowler for Bengal with 3 for 69, while Ashoke Dinda took 3 for 97. They both should be credited for slogging it out on a 22-yard track which is probably one of the flattest this season.

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Tamil Nadu 565 for 8 dec (Abhinav 240, Karthik 133) drew with Saurashtra 581 for 6 dec (Pujara 269, Shah 195, Vasavada 70)
Scorecard

By the end of the opening session on the third day, the result, or rather the lack of one, seemed a foregone conclusion. Neither side had the bowling to force an outright win, so it was down to a shootout for first-innings points between two strong batting line-ups. Saurashtra salvaged three points in a stalemate at the MA Chidambaram Stadium while the hosts, Tamil Nadu, had to live with just one point despite putting on 565. That only 14 wickets fell across four days with neither team taking all ten wickets in an innings, showed the imbalance between bat and ball.

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