Skipper Yere Goud led from the front as Railways took a firm grip on their MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament first round match against Maharashtra at the Southern Railway stadium in Chennai on Monday. Thanks to Goud and his 173-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Raja Ali (89), Railways finished the second day on 365 for four wickets off 90 overs in reply to Maharashtra's first innings total of 267.

Resuming at seven for no loss, Railways lost Amit Pagnis for 15 at 37. They suffered another quick blow at 39 when Murali Kartik was run out for zero. The other opener Vineet Saxena (51) and Goud then initiated a recovery process by adding 60 runs for the third wicket off 16 overs before the former was out for 51. During his stay of two hours at the crease, Saxena faced 104 balls and despatched eight of them to the ropes.

Left hander Raja Ali joined the 29-year-old Goud and the two not only carried the Railways score past Maharashtra's but also enabled their side to take a stranglehold on the match. Both found run making easy during their long association which lasted 46.4 overs. At 272, the 25- year-old Raja Ali was bowled by Mandar Sane, eleven runs short of a hundred. He faced 128 balls and hit 14 fours and a six. There was no relief for the Maharashtra bowlers - and skipper Abhijit Kale tried ten of them during the day - even after Ali's dismissal. For, Goud and Santhosh Sahu then added 93 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket off 12.2 overs till close.

At stumps, Goud, a prolific run getter in the Ranji Trophy last season had batted 334 minutes. He faced 251 balls and hit 20 fours and two sixes. Sahu was unbeaten with 42 off 62 balls with five boundary hits. With Railways already having a lead of 98 runs with six wickets in hand, the last day's play on Tuesday will just be a formality. About the only interest remaining in the game is how much the run hungry Goud, who averages 50 plus in his first class career, will finally get.

* Sridhar shines with bat and ball

The second day of the match between All India Associate Bank XI and Tamil Nadu Districts XI in the MRF Buchi Babu All India Invitation Tournament at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Monday, saw AIAB take their first innings score to 344 all out. By close of play, TN Districts XI had scored 164/4 in 79 overs. The main highlight of the day was a good show with the bat and ball by Ramakrishnan Sridhar.

Resuming at 283/8, AIAB went on to add 61 valuable runs for the last two wickets. Manish Majithia made 28 and was caught by Noorul Riaz off the bowling of Subbiah Veeranan. Sridhar played a bright knock and went on to remain unbeaten on 38, which included five boundaries and a six. The last wicket partnership between Sridhar and Narender Pal Singh (17) added 32 runs. Ganapathy Vignesh with 4/54 was the best of the bowlers.

TN Districts XI got off to a sedate start, Riaz and Mohamad Basha put on 125 runs for the first wicket off 55.1 overs. Riaz made 70 runs off 171 balls with the help of five strokes past the ropes and was the first wicket to fall, caught by Pankaj Dharmani off the bowling of Majithia. Masha (45) followed soon, caught by Sanjay Mohan off the bowling of Sridhar.

Sridhar struck two more body blows to the TN Districts XI by dismissing Saravanan (8) and Kumaraguru (4) and reduced them to 151/4 in the 70th over. In the last ten overs of the day just 13 runs were scored as Vijayakumaran Gautham (19 not out) and Rajagopal Sathish (4 not out) played carefully. Sridhar, the left-arm orthodox spinner who plays for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy, finished with the excellent figures of 18-8-17-3. All looks set for a keen fight for the all important first innings lead on Tuesday.

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