Jaipur: It’s all over for Rajasthan as far as Ranji Trophy knockout qualification is concerned.The Mahipal Lomror-led side needed to beat Himachal Pradesh to stay in contention but instead they barely managed to draw their Ranji Trophy Elite Group D match which concluded at the Anantam Ground here on Sunday.
With just 14 points from six matches, they cannot finish in the top-2 even if they win their seventh and final tie against Pondicherry, starting from January 29.Mumbai already qualified for the knockouts from Group D with a win over Hyderabad on Sunday to take their points tally to 30. Jammu and Kashmir are at the second spot with 21 points, while Chhattisgarh lie at the third position with 17 points.Winless in the season so far, Himachal tried hard to post their first victory by making a sporting declaration at 243 for 8 in their second innings and gave a challenging target of 308 from 44 overs to Rajasthan.The hosts looked positive initially as they raced to 34 in six overs but soon their charge fizzled out as wickets started tumbling regularly. In the end after half of the side was gone, Kunal Singh Rathore (10 off 80 balls) and Manav Suthar (0 off 25 balls) had to defend well to ensure the draw.Himachal’s middle-order batter Pukhraj Mann, who scored his maiden Ranji century (118), received his man-of-the-match award from Match Referee Sreekumar Nair.Brief ScoresHimachal Pradesh 406 and 243/8 declared in 58 overs (Ankush Bains 93, Akash Vashisht 44*, Innesh Mahajan 42; Manav Suthar 4-79, Ajay Kookna 3-72, Khaleel Ahmed 1-38) drew with Rajasthan 342 and 100/5 in 40 overs (Mukul Choudhary 28, Salman Khan 24, Deepak Hooda 16, Amol Chelani 12; Akash Vashisht 4-24, Mukul Negi 1-32).
