Khanolkar guides Railways to Ranji one-day trophy

Mumbai, Apr 5 (UNI) Shreyas Khanolkar came up with a superb all-round performance to deny Uttar Pradesh a double Ranji crown this season, as the Railways defeated them by 20 runs in the Ranji Trophy All India inter-state one-day final at the Wankhede stadium here today.

Electing to bat first after winning the toss, Railways were in deep trouble as they lost opener Amit Pagnis, who gave a tame return catch to Praveen Kumar, without opening his account in the second over of the day to leave the champions at four for one.

Praveen Kumar then struck again in the fourth over when he had T P Singh caught by Jyoti Yadav also for zero with the team score on 10.

Sanjay Bangar and J P Yadav then tried to stabilise the innings with a 26-run third wicket stand before Praveen Kumar removed them to leave the Railways reeling at 36 for four in the 12th over.

At this stage, Shreyas Khanolkar and Sushant Manjrekar got together and with a good rearguard action put on 104 runs for the fifth wicket with Khanolkar reaching his 50 in 69 balls hitting four boundaries.

Manjrekar also made 47 in 67 balls with four hits to the fence.

Railways, however, once again had a mini collapse as they lost Manjrekar (47) and Khanolkar (73) with the scoreboard reading 195 for seven.

After their departure, G Shankara Rao made a quick fire 38 in 45 balls with four hits to the fence to take his side over the 200 mark, which was bolwed out for 224 in 47.3 overs with Praveen Kumar taking five for 32.

In reply, Uttar Pradesh, missing Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina, who are on India duty, saw their batsmen get starts but were not able to convert them into big scores.

Middle order batsman Ravikant Shukla top scored with 44. Six of the top seven batsmen got going but could not press ahead with a big score.

Shreyas Khanolkar after his batting heroics came back to take three important wickets as Uttar Pradesh were bowled out for 204 in 47.1 overs as Railways annexed the one-day trophy.

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