Railways takes first innings honours in the drawn game

Railways and Uttar Pradesh played out a draw in their Central Zone Ranji Trophy encounter at the Sports Stadium in Meerut on Thursday. Railways by the virtue of their first innings lead collected five points and currently lead the zonal table with 18 points from three games. Uttar Pradesh are languishing in fourth place with just three points in two games.

Resuming the day at 125/6 in their second innings - an overall lead of 202 - Railways lost both overnight batsmen, Kulamani Parida and S Sahu cheaply to slide to 147/8. Amit Pagnis and Harvinder Singh put together an 82 run ninth wicket stand that frustrated the home team. After Singh's dismissal for 37 (96 balls, 4 fours, 2 sixes), Pagnis batted on in the company of last man, Shahid Khan before skipper Abhay Sharma closed shutters at 248/9. Pagnis finished unbeaten on 62 (126 balls, 7 fours).

The target for UP was 326 and with just over forty overs remaining in the game, they understandably showed little inclination to step up the pace, meandering to 48/2 from 35 overs before stumps were drawn. Wicket keeper Manoj Mudgal was unbeaten on 33 while leg spinner Khan took the opportunity to add two more wickets to his kitty.