NEW DELHI: Jai Prakash Yadav holds the key to Railways regaining a spot in the elite group of the ranji Trophy. His all-round excellence this season has been the highlight of Railways' progress, not to forget the contributions by Shreyas Khanolkar, Sushant Manjrekar and Murali Kartik as the former National champion fights hard to move out of the plate group.

Yadav has scored 280 runs and bagged 21 wickets to keep his side floating.

"He has been the strength of the team no doubt," said Railways coach Vinod Sharma. With strong support from Khanolkar (258 runs), Tejinder Pal Singh (288 runs) and Manjrekar (172 runs), the Railways batting has managed to overcome the loss of form affecting Sanjay Bangar and Amit Pagnis.

Bangar, however has picked up 16 wickets, to give teeth to the attack where Harvinder Singh would play a key role on a pitch which has been prepared to suit the seamers. "There will be bounce and carry," confirmed Vinod Sharma.

S. Ramesh will be the batsman Railways will have to contend with. With two centuries under the belt, Ramesh has shown superb form, scoring 372 runs so far with Sreekumaran Nair aggregating 321 runs.

Railways, having 12 points from four matches, needs to secure at least two points from this match to move into the semifinals. The other teams in the contention, Assam (14 points) and Vidarbha (11 points), play each other at Nagpur. Kerala has a mere four points to its credit.

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