Railways put themselves on victory path by restricting Andhra to 202 and closing the day at 151 for no loss in their second innings on the penultimate day of the Elite 'A' Ranji Trophy cricket match played in Ananthapur on Friday.
Resuming at 120 for six, overnight batsmen K Shabuddin (33) and Balaji Kishen Singh (30) added 47 runs for the seventh wicket as the team coasted to 202 in reply to Andhra's first innings score of 263.
Railways now have a net lead of 212 runs with ten wickets in hand and one day to go, should go all out for an outright win. The visitors already have two points in its kitty by virtue of their first innings lead.
Madan Yadav took four for 61 and was the most effective bowler for Railways while JP Yadav took two wickets. Harvinder Singh, Sanjay Bangar and K Parida claimed one wicket each.
Railways second innings started on a fast track with openers Amit Pagnis and Sanjay Bangar playing the Andhra bowlers with confidence mauling them on either side of the wicket to pick up quick runs.
Pagnis scored a brilliant century and was unbeaten on 107 with 19 hits to the fence while skipper Sanjay Bangar on 40, with five fours, were at the crease when stumps were drawn.
Scorecard
Railways 1st Innings: 263
Andhra 1st Innings (Overnight 120 for 6):
Manoj Sai st Joshi b Madan Yadav 27
L N Prasad Reddy c J P Yadav b Madan Yadav 11
A S K Varma st Joshi b Parida 36
Y Gnaneswara Rao c Pagnis b Bangar 1
Y Venugopal Rao lbw J P Yadav 24
R V Ch Prasad b J P Yadav 4
K S Shabuddin c TP Singh b Madan Yadav 33
Balaji Singh c Pagnis b Madan Yadav 30
Md Faiq c Bangar b Harvinder Singh 14
AG Praveen not out 10
Kalyan Krishna run out 1
Extras: (b 5, lb 3, nb 3) 11
Total: (All out in 103 overs) 202
Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-53, 3-60, 4-98, 5-107, 6-118, 7-165, 8-175, 9-200
Bowling: Harvinder Singh 13-4-19-1, J P Yadav 24-9-48-2, Sanjay Bangar 20-6-31-1, Madan Yadav 32-13-61-4, Kulamani Parida 14-3-35-1.
Railways 2nd innings:
Amit Pagnis batting 107
Sanjay Bangar batting 40
Extras: (b 2, nb 1, w 1) 4
Total: (for no loss in 42 overs) 151
Bowling: K S Shabuddin 10-2-32-0, RVCh Prasad 2-0-12-0, Kalyan Krishna 6-0-27-0, Md Faiq 10-2-31-0, Y Venugopal Rao 8-1-23-0, AG Praveen 3-0-15-0, Balaji Kishen Singh 3-0-9-0.