Haryana qualify for semifinals despite draw

The Cooch Behar clash between Railways and Haryana at the Deccan Gymkhana in Pune ended in a draw on Wednesday. Resuming on 117/4 in response to Haryana's mammoth 616/8 declared, Railways were skittled out for 180. Amit Mishra (5/29) and Nitin Aggarwal (4/67) were the architects of the Haryana success story. Manoj Sriwatav with an unbeaten 66 was the only Railways batsman to offer any resistance.

Surprisingly, Haryana decided not to enforce the follow on. After having Railways on the ropes they let them off the hook. In their second essay, Sumit Sharma slammed an unbeaten 128 and took Haryana to 258/4. The draw gave Haryana enough points to qualify for the semifinal stage of the tournament.