Railways denied Uttar Pradesh a domestic title double when they beat the newly-crowned Ranji Trophy champions by 20 runs with 2.5 overs to spare in the national Inter-Zonal knock-out one-day final in Mumbai on Wednesday.
All-rounder Shreyas Khanolkar did the star turn for Railways in the battle between two central zone outfits by top-scoring with 73 and helping his team pile 224.
He later took three important wickets for 46 runs with his off-breaks, including that of top scorer Ravikant Shukla (44 in 51 balls with 5 fours), to apply the skids under UP.
UP were all out for 204 in 47.1 overs, their last two batsmen run-out in a frenetic chase towards the end, which left talented youngster Ali Murtaza stranded on a well-made 33 not out.
Murtuza had kept UP firmly in the hunt by putting on 32 runs in 44 balls with Amir Khan (13) for the eighth wicket before Railways fought back to polish off the last three wickets in ten runs in the space of 14 balls.
Earlier, Khanolkar came to Railways' rescue with a timely partnership of 104 ruins for the fifth wicket with Sushant Manjrekar (47) to pull his side from deep trouble after they had plunged to 41 for four in the 12th over.
Khanolkar hit five fours in his 92-ball innings before being seventh out at 195. He put on another crucial 41 runs with G Shankar Rao (38) that helped Railways cross the 200-mark.
For UP, medium pacer Praveen Kumar, who sent back the first four batsmen, was the pick with a haul of 5 for 32. He got good support from Murutuza, who grabbed 2 for 38 with his left-arm slow bowling.
Scorecard
Railways:
S Bangar c Kapoor b Praveen Kumar 19
A Pagnis c and b Praveen Kumar 0
T P Singh c Jyoti Yadav b Praveen Kumar 0
J P Yadav c Chawla b Praveen Kumar 17
S Khanolkar c Jyoti Yadav b Chawla 73
S Manjrekar c Amir Khan b Shrivastav 47
Raja Ali st Amir Khan b Shivakant Shukla 4
G Shankar Rao c Ravikant Shukla b Murtuza 38
R Deb c Ravikant Shukla b Murtuza 9
Harvinder Singh not out 0
K Parida lbw Murtuza 0
Extras: (nb 5, wb 12) 17
Total: (all out in 47.3 overs) 224
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-10, 3-36, 4-41, 5-145, 6-154, 7-195, 8-223, 9-224.
Bowling: Shrivastav 9-0-42-1, Praveen Kumar 9-1-32-5, Mishra 7-0-40-0, Chawla 7-0-43-1, Murtuza 9.3-0-38-2, Shivakant Shukla 6-0-29-1.
Utttar Pradesh:
P Kumar c Manjrekar b Harvinder Singh 21
S Shukla c Pagnis b Parida 30
J Yadav lbw Harvinder Singh 1
R Shukla c J P Yadav b Khanolkar 44
A Kapoor c Parida b Khanolkar 24
M Saif c Manjrekar b Madan Yadav 19
Ali Murtuza not out 33
P Chawla c Deb b Khanolkar 2
Amir Khan b Parida 13
S P Gupta run out 1
S Shrivastav run out 0
Extras: (lb 2, nb 1, wb 13) 16
Total: (all out in 47,1 overs) 204
Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-45, 3-66, 4-123, 5-144, 6-158, 7-162, 8-194, 9-204.
Bowling: Harvinder Singh 8-0-26-2, J P Yadav 8.1-0-31-0, Khanolkar 10-1-46-3, Parida 10-0-44-2, Bangar 4-0-20-0, Madan Yadav 7-0-35-1.