Railways set up quarterfinal clash with Karnataka

Batting virtually through the final day, Yere Goud (221 not out) and Railways skipper Abhay Sharma (188) made it a non contest of the Ranji Trophy pre-quarter-final match against Maharashtra at the Poona Club ground in Poona on Wednesday. Though the match meandered to a draw, Railways entered the quarter-final due to their 123-run first innings lead they secured on the third day of the match. Railways now meet six time champions Karnataka, who defeated Assam by seven wickets, in the quarters.

Resuming at 314/4, Railways overnight batsmen Yere Goud and Abhay Sharma just destroyed the Maharashtra bowling into submission. The inseperable pair, batting with dour resilience, ran up a 324-run fourth wicket partnership concretising Railways' entry into the next stage. So much was their dominance that the hapless Maharashtra skipper, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, was prompted to use the services of his whole team.

Abhay Sharma was the only batsman to be dismissed, when Kondhalkar finally bowled him in the 186th over of the innings. During a five-hour stay at the crease, Abhay faced 241 balls and hit 19 boundaries. Thereafter Goud and SN Khanolkar (17) played out the rest of the overs. Goud who remained unbeaten at the end manned the crease for 532 minutes and faced 400 balls while hitting 21 boundaries and twice clearing it.