Bist foot forward for Central Zone

A couple of years back, Bist was the story of the season. His 1000 plus runs for Rajasthan made him the “young man to watch out for”. The story was to get a twist. It was a painful tumour in his bladder that snapped his run-making streak. “I used to get severe backaches and it was only after I was operated upon that things improved,” he says. Back to peak fitness, Bist is keen to make up for lost time.

He came to the crease after opener Jalaj Saxena was dismissed in the 17th over and the scoreboard read 25/1. Central Zone, pushed on the back foot by some tight South Zone bowling, needed someone to not just stick around but to also keep the scoreboard ticking. The pace trio of R Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun and HS Sharath bowled a tight off stump line. They put Bist through a tough test. Despite the unusual bounce and the quality bowling, Bisht looked in control and offered a firm defence. Unperturbed, he played a waiting a game. Along with opener Faiz Fazal (49) he added 65 for the second wicket.

“The wicket was juicy and was still drying up. Certain deliveries were stopping and jumping on you so I had decided not to hang my bat too much. It was just a matter of spending time on the pitch here as runs were certain to come later on,” said Bist after the end of day’s play.

Changing gears

Gradually, the 27-year-old Rajasthan middle-order batsman started to pace his innings. The standout feature of Bist’s batting was his positivity. “My idea was just to hit the bad deliveries,” he said. He stepped up the scoring rate when the spinners were brought into the attack.

He also didn’t allow Ojha to settle. Just when the left-arm spinner had found perfect spot to pitch the ball, Bist employed the sweep shot. The ploy worked on the minds of other bowlers too as they lost their rhythm. When bowlers were bowling tight, Bisht concentrated on taking singles.

“Rotating the strike is very important as it disturbs the bowlers line and length. Once that is done, he keeps bowling here and there,” said Bist, who reached fifty with a single to Ojha in the 53rd over after hitting him for a boundary. Soon after, Bist’s concentration dropped for the first time in his innings and he played an ordinary Ojha delivery into the hands of mid-wicket. “I asked Ojha about the delivery and he told me that the ball just stopped on me and I was a bit early on the shot. It wasn’t at all a wicket-taking delivery. I am very disappointed,” Bist said about his dismissal. He was out long back but Bist still hadn’t got over his only false stroke of the day.

Brief Scores: Central Zone 1st Innings 237/7 in 87 ovs (Robin Bist 79, Faiz Fazal 49, Arindam Ghosh 32 batting; Baba Aparajith 2/26) vs South Zone

Live on Star Sports 2 at 9:30 am