Railways bundled out Orissa for 331 at Karnail Singh stadium on Friday to take three crucial points from the match to stay afloat with the chances of making it to the knock-out round of the Ranji Trophy while Orissa lost the last chance of saving their relegation to Plate group.

Orissa looked in comfortable position needing only 85 runs with five wickets in hand when they came to bat this morning but the resurgent Railways took only 21 overs to end the suspense around the last day's play.

It was a bit of a disappointment for those who were expecting an entertaining duel between the two sides as both of them needed three points desperately but the visitors succumb without putting up any fight.

Orissa could add only 37 runs to their overnight score of 294 as Railways medium pacer Krishnakant Upadhyay and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik ripped through their lower batting order. Upadhyay and Kartik shared the bounty between them taking two wickets each this morning.

It was Upadhyay (2 for 69) who broke the overnight partnership of Abhilash Mallick and Govinda Poddar to put Railways on track of taking the all important first innings lead. He first went through the defence of Poddar (44) only in the fifth over the day and then removed Lagnajit Samal (9) who missed the line to see his stumps being shattered. The 25-year-old medium pacer also displayed his fielding skills when he his direct throw from mid-on ran out the last recongnised batsman Mallick (51).

Seasoned pro Kartik (3 for 74) took care of the rest removing Basant Mohanty and Alok Mangaraj.

Orissa who could only gather two points from six games will be playing in the Plate group next year even if they take full six points from their last game against Rajasthan. Railways, on the other hand, now have 13 points and an outright win against Saurashtra in their last match can take them to the last eight.

Brief Scores:

Railways: 379 & 113 for 2 (Shreyas Khanolkar 50 no) draw with Orissa: 331 (Paresh Patel 95, Subhrajit Sahoo 70; Murali Kartik 3 for 74, KK Upadhyay 2 for 69).

Points: Railways-3, Orissa-1.

Ranji Round up

Delhi vs Bengal

Delhi: 392 and 186 for 3 (P Bisht 57, M Manhas 52 not out. Bengal 358 for 8 (Manoj Tiwary 187; P Sangwan 5 for 107).

Mumbai vs UP

Mumbai: 414 and 11 for 2. UP: 312 all out for 2 (B Kumar 62, S Raina 58; RR Powar 5 for 69).

Tamil Nadu vs Gujarat

TN: 698 for 8 decl Gujarat:  539 all out (Juneja 201 not out, Priyank Krit Panchal 80).

Punjab vs Karnataka

Punjab: 357 & 247 for 8 (U Kaul 100; NC iyappa4 for 70) Karnataka: 281 and 157 for 1 (R Uttappa 68, KB Pawan 57; R Sharma 1 for 42).

Rajasthan vs Saurashtra

Raj: 396 & 241 for 4 (AChopra 87). Saurashtra: 265  and 143 all out (Jaydev Shah 35; Sumit Mathur 6 for 33).

MP vs Haryana

MP: 487. Haryana (126 and 346 for 7 in 135 overs (Sunny Singh 76, Prateek

Pawar 84, Sachin Rana 64; TP Sudhindra 3 for 83).