ONE THAT GOT AWAY: Stuart Binny just misses out snaring Railways' Shankar Rao. _ PHOTO: V. V. KRISHNAN

NEW DELHI: True to its now-familiar character, Railways recovered some ground through a century-stand for the seventh wicket and kept Karnataka on a tight leash by taking three wickets as the battle for the vital first innings lead was interestingly poised after two days of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group `A' match at the Karnail Singh Stadium here on Thursday.

Resuming at 186 for five, Railways lost the ever-reliable Yere Goud early but still managed to reach 323 due to the uncanny ability of its late-order to contribute with amazing consistency.

Shreyas Khanolkar (81, 11 x 4) and Shankar Rao (40, 1 x 6, 4 x 4) raised 106 runs to frustrate Karnataka.

Rao's dismissal at the stroke of lunch was followed by the fall of the remaining three wickets in the space of 27 minutes.

Kumble takes three

Medium pacer Vinay Kumar completed his second five-wicket haul and Anil Kumble finished with three wickets, including two of the last three.

Thereafter, Karnataka made 134 for three in 46 overs to move within 190 runs of taking the all-important lead.

In the afternoon, after the calculated assault launched by Khanolkar and Rao, it seemed batting had become much easier than it was on the first day.

But the manner in which the Karnataka openers, debutant Bharat Chiple and Barrington Rowland, batted during their brief and unproductive stay in the middle, they did not inspire their teammates.

But skipper Sujith Somasundar and Sudhindra Shinde batted positively on a pitch that held no terrors.

Somasundar cracked seven boundaries and looked poised to reach his half-century when he was foxed by a T.P. Singh delivery that kept a bit low.

In the final session, Stuart Binny batted with supreme confidence even in fading light while Shinde was content on playing the sheet-anchor role to perfection.

The scores:

Railways — 1st innings: S. Bangar c Shinde b Vinay 0, A. Pagnis lbw b Vinay 39, T.P. Singh c Somasundar b Vinay 16, V. Saxena c & b Joshi 29, Raja Ali c Shinde b Kumble 59, Y. Goud lbw b Ganesh 20, S. Khanolkar c Kumble b Vinay 81, S. Rao c Ganesh b Vinay 40, S. Wankhede lbw b Kumble 4, H. Singh (not out) 2, S. Saxena c Chiple b Kumble 1, Extras (b-8, lb-4, nb-19, w-1) 32, Total (in 131.2 overs) 323.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-28, 3-78, 4-122, 5-176, 6-200, 7-306, 8-219, 9-320.

Karnataka bowling: Vinay 27-5-65-5, Ganesh 21-2-48-1, Akhil 17-5-46-0, Kumble 40.2-11-86-3, Joshi 24-11-57-1, Binny 2-0-9-0.

Karnataka — 1st innings: B. Chipli c Wankhede b Saxena 2, B. Rowland c Wankhede b Saxena 6, S. Somasundar b T.P. Singh 46, S. Shinde (batting) 49, S. Binny (batting) 19, Extras (b-4, lb-7, nb-1) 12, Total (for three wkts. in 46 overs) 134.

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-20, 3-99.

Railways bowling: Harvinder 14-7-21-0, Saxena 10-2-33-2, Bangar 10-2-22-0, Rao 8-1-22-0, T.P. Singh 1-0-8-1, Khanolkar 3-0-17-0.

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