A defiant unbeaten 130 by Railways allrounder J P Yadav and his 167-run fifth wicket stand with Yere Goud (56) foiled Tamil Nadu's bid for an outright win as their second Ranji trophy elite group 'A' match ended in a draw in New Delhi on Sunday.
At close of play Railways were 267 for five in their second essay. The hosts had scored 270 in their first innings and Tamil Nadu in reply had made 371.
Tamil Nadu, by virtue of a101-run first innings lead, claimed two points and now have four points from two outings, while defending champion Railways have yet to open their account after two drawn matches, in which they had conceded the first innings lead.
Resuming at their overnight score of 25 for 2, Railways needed 76 runs to avoid innings defeat and were rattled when they lost their skipper and opener Sunjoy Bangar with the addition of only 14 runs. Kumaran was the bowler to struck this blow.
However, J P Yadav and new batsman Raja Ali batted cautiously and did not allow the visitors another quick breakthrough.
The two added 50 runs for the fourth wicket before R Naresh got rid of Raja Ali (28) who edged the ball and wicket keeper Kaarthick took a smart catch.
Yere Goud then joined Yadav and an absorbing tussle between the bowlers and batsmen began in which the former emerged triumphant.
Yadav and Goud frustrated the visitors with their stubborn batting and took the score to 208 for 4 at tea and that ended Tamil Nadu's hope for outright win. Yadav completed his 100 off 192 balls hitting two sixes and fourten fours.
It was left to spinner S Vidyut to break the partnership when Yere Goud was caught by Anirudha at silly point. The score at that stage was 256. Goud made 56 (196m, 8x4).
The match was called off after eight mandatory overs. At that stage Yadav was on 130 (346m, 2x6, 16x4) and S Khanolkar was on 2.
Scorecard
Railways 1st innings: 270
Tamil Nadu 1st innings: 371
Railways 2nd innings: (overnight 25 for two)
A Pagnis c Karthik b Naresh 11
S Bangar c Naresh b Kumaran 7
T P Singh c Anirudha b Kapoor 4
J P Yadav not out 130
Raja Ali c Karthik b Naresh 28
Y Goud c Anirudha b Vidyut 56
S Khanolkar not out 2
Extras (b-7, lb-5, w-5, nb-12) 29
Total (for five wickets in 95 overs) 267
Fall of Wickets: 1-14, 2-20, 3-39, 4-89, 5-256
Bowling: Jesuraj 17-4-48-0, Naresh 13-4-40-2, Kapoor 18-7-48-1, Kumaran 13-3-40-1, Sriram 17-5-34-0, Badani 4-1-9-0, Vidyut 9-3-30-1, Badrinath 3-1-4-0, Hemanth Kumar 1-0-2-0.