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Chennai, January 24th
As expected, the Ranji final between Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan ended in a draw at Chennai and Rajasthan retained the Ranji trophy by virtue of its first innings lead. Rajasthan declared the second innings for 204 for 5 wickets in the second innings setting Tamil Nadu an impossible target of 531 runs. Bist scored 92. Tamil Nadu completed the day’s proceedings with 8 for 2.Rajasthan had scored the first innings lead of 326 runs having scored 621. This has virtually sealed Tamil Nadu’s fate. The host who started as favourites were seeking a victory after 1988. After 1988, which was the last occasion, Tamil Nadu won the cup under the stewardship of S Vasudevan . Tamil Nadu had been in the finals twice in the interregna but failed to win the coveted sup. This was the third successive failure for the highly fancied team. Balaji’s bating might did not come good against an accurate Rajasthan’s attack that proved the undoing for Balaji’s name.
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