Railways in a comfortable position against UP

On an rather interesting day's play Railways reduced the hosts Uttar Pradesh to 157 and gained a first innings lead of 77 runs, and went on to extend it by another 125 by the end of the third day at the Sports Stadium in Meerut on Wednesday.

Resuming at the overnight score of 98 for 5, the UP innings folded up in a further 30.5 overs. Skipper Gynender Pandey (56 not out) who scored a sedate half century fought a lone battle. After the fall of his overnight partner Rizwan Shamshed (25) none of the other batsmen managed to stay long at the crease thus leaving Pandey stranded. Parida (5 for 33) added one more scalp to his credit while the other wickets were shared allround.

In reply Railways made a sedate start to their second innings with openers TP Singh (32) and Sanjay Bangar (5) adding 33 runs in 10.1 overs. Then Shalab Srivastava sent back Bangar and skipper Abhay Sharma (4) in quick succession. TP Singh also did not last long and he departed, bowled by Raza. But Yere Goud (26) and Raza Ali (34) added 63 runs for the fourth wicket. But UP made a come back after the fall of Raza Ali, bowled by Pandey, when Mohd Kaif struck two blows to leave the visitors in a spot of bother at Stumps. Railways by the end of the day had extended their lead to 202 runs.