Punjab knock out Railways and qualify for next phase

Railways were struggling even at the end of the second day's play. From a precarious position of 176 for 9 at stumps on Day 2, Railways managed to push their score to 195 thanks to a timely 31 run last wicket partnership between Murali Kartik and K Parida.

However, there was bad news all around for the Railways team as their batting failed once more. The second essay was far worse than their first and right arm off spinner Sharandeep Singh made the best of the opportunity, running through the Railways side. Bowling a nine over spell that yielded 5 wickets for 22 runs, Sharandeep scuttled out Railways for just 96.

For Railways, just 4 batsmen reached double figures, and captain Rawat with 23 was the top scorer. A rather dismal scorecard, one that no one from the Railways team would like to look at again.

Winning the match by an innings and 64 runs, Punjab picked up a valuable 8 points and took their tally to 24. This means that they qualify for the knock out phase. In their group Hyderabad defeated Baroda today and ended with 21 points.