New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) Poor fielding dashed Railways’ hopes of qualifying for the quarter-final stage as they allowed Punjab to recover from a shaky start and take a first innings lead with a score of 401 in the first innings in the Ranji Trophy Super League match here Thursday.
Railways fielders dropped two easy catches and missed a stumping opportunity that saw Punjab, resuming at overnight score of 154/4, riding on Uday Kaul’s 123 and Rahul Sharma’s 79 taking a huge lead of 114 at the Karni Singh Stadium. At stumps on the third day’s play, Railways were 16 for one.

Railways needed at least five points from this match and only an outright victory can help them to seal a quarter-final berth. Punjab, on the other hand, needed only a point to advance.

But after their second consecutive day of poor fielding, it seems Railways’ chances are all but over.

Kaul and Vishwas Bhalla (44) added 91 runs for the sixth wicket to help Punjab recover. Kaul stroked his way to a fine century that came off 343 ball and was studded with 12 fours.

Brief scores:

At Delhi: Railways 287 and 16/1. Punjab 401 (Uday Kaul 123, Rahul Sharma 79; Karan Sharma 4-93, Murali Kartik 2-91)

At Kolkata: Bengal 522. Delhi 348/7 (Punit Bisht 103 batting, Mithun Manhas 88, Aditya Jain 56; Ranadeb Bose 3-79, Iresh Saxena 2-58).

At Dharamsala: Himachal Pardesh 125 and 360/7 (Vinit Indulkar 137 batting, Kuldeep Diwan 83; Alok Chandra Sahoo 3-71, Debashish Mohanty 2-80). Orissa 316.

At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 347 all out. Tamil Nadu 594/6 (Abhinav Mukund 257, Subramaniam Badrinath 122; Alfred Absolem 3-74).

At Pune: Maharashtra 288 and 207 (Rohit Motwani 62, Harshad Khadiwale 45; Irfan Pathan 4-48, Munaf Patel 3-78). Baroda 395 (Conor Williams 129, Shatrunjay Gaekwad 118; Samed Fallah 8-98) and 2/1.

At Mumbai: Mumbai 648/6. Gujarat 432/3 (Parthiv Patel 148, Bhavik Thaker 111 batting).

At Rajkot: Saurashtra 216 and 389/8 (Chirag Pathak 88, Cheteshwar Pujara 66, Pratik Mehera 66 batting; Udit Patel 2/86, K.P. Apanna 2/86). Karnataka 384.