NEW DELHI: The celebrations in the Railways dressing room may have seemed bizarre for a moment. The team had failed to collect a point from the drawn encounter against Kerala and yet the mood was upbeat at the Karnail Singh Stadium on Thursday.

It transpired later that the team indeed had reason to celebrate, other than the fact that despite the result here Railways was scheduled to travel to Dharamshala for the semifinal clash against Himachal Pradesh a week from now.

For the record, Railways had 12 points to its credit, one more than Vidarbha, which drew with Assam. The home team finished at 41 for no loss after Kerala, which ended the league with two points, was bowled out for 177.

Achievements

This happened to be the 100th first class match as coach for Vinod Sharma and off-spinner Kulamani Parida, when scalping S. Ramesh, picked his 300th first-class wicket. Two achievements Railways would be proud of.

No wonder, some Railway Sports Promotion Board made their first appearance of the season at the ground once they realised the team was firmly on road to getting back to the elite group after a gap of one year.

"I am proud of my association with the Railways," said an emotional Vinod Sharma, who began his stint in 1984 as a player-cum-coach and later turned to concentrate on the job of guiding the team.

Parida made his debut in 1996-97 and this was his 98th match, 79th for Railways.

The scores:

Kerala — 1st innings: 264.

Railways — 1st innings: 184.

Kerala — 2nd innings: S. Suresh c Bangar b Harvinder 0, V.A. Jagadeesh b Harvinder 0, F. Robert c Vivek b Yadav 18, R.V. Gomez b Parida 23, P. Prashant c Manjrekar b Yadav 17, S. Ramesh c Khanolkar b Parida 55, S. Nair c Khanolkar b Yadav 3, R. Prem c Vivek b Harvinder 21, S. Aneesh lbw b Parida 2, C. M. Deepak (run out) 10, Sony C. (not out) 6, Extras (b-3, lb-6, nb-8, w-5): 22. Total (in 77.1 overs): 177.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-7, 3-44, 3-44, 4-69, 5-70, 6-81, 7-127, 8-134, 9-170.

Railways bowling: Harvinder 19-6-48-3, Yadav 18-6-35-3, Parida 22.1-6-40-3, Bangar 6-0-18-0, Kartik 9-3-19-0, T.P. Singh 3-0-8-0.

Railways — 2nd innings: P. Vivek (not out) 10, A. Pagnis (not out) 31, Total (for no loss in 20 overs) 41.

Kerala bowling: Sony 5-1-17-0, Suresh 6-2-11-0, Aneesh 5-2-7-0, Prashant 4-2-6-0.

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