Railways were in box seat after gaining a first innings lead of 179 runs over Andhra in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' four-day cricket match at the Karnail Singh stadium at New Delhi on Sunday.

Riding on the back of a solid century by Test batsman Sanjay Bangar and a quick fire unbeaten half century by Sidharth Verma, Railways posted a strong 441 for nine declared.

At stumps on day three, Andhra had wiped out 72 of the deficit for the loss of right handed opener Amit Pathak in their second essay.

M Suresh was at the crease on 29 with night watchman Hemal Watekar yet to open the account when umpires called off play.

The performances of Bangar (116) and Verma (79 not out) formed the pillars around which the second, third, and seventh wicket partnerships revolved.

Resuming at 192 for one, Bangar and Tejinder Pal Singh -- 72 and 52 overnight respectively -- brought runs at a brisk pace.

The latter was dominant as usual before a flash off Kalyanakrishna was snapped up by Fiaz Ahmed at gully. His 77 came off 125 balls from 155 minutes, with 13 fours and a six, and the second wicket stand with Bangar was worth 118 runs. 

The experienced Yere Goud (24) then continued the tempo set by Singh. Despite the stumped dismissal of Goud, Railways reached 286 for three at lunch, close to 100 runs in the session.

Scoreboard:

Andhra 1st innings: 262

Railways 1st innings:
A Pagnis c Shankararao b Kalyankrishna      58
S Bangar c Shankararao b Vikram Verma      116
T P Singh c Fiaz Ahmed b Krishna               77
Y Goud st M S K Prasad b Shankararao        24
J P Yadav LBW b Shankararao                 15
S Khanolkar LBW b Shankararao               11
S Verma not out                                       79
Raja Ali c Krishna b Shankararao            24
A Sharma c Suresh b Shahabuddin              4
Harvinder Singh not out                     1           3

Extras: (b-1, lb-7, nb-8, w-4)               20

Total: (for 8 wickets decl. in 135 overs)   441

Fall of wickets: 1-116, 2-234, 3-280, 4-308, 5-308, 6-319, 7-384, 8-394.

Bowling: Syed Shahabuddin 32-8-86-1, Krishna 21-2-83-2, R V Ch Prasad 12-3-29-0, G Shankararao 36-12-96-4, Vikram Verma 14-0-58-1, Watekar 14-2-55-0, Y Venugopalarao 4-0-17-0, M Suresh 2-0-9-0.

Andhra 2nd innings:
A Pathak lbw b T P Singh              39
M Suresh batting                            29
H Watekar batting                            0

Extras: (b-3, lb-1)                       4

Total: (for 1 wicket in 24 overs)  72

Fall of wicket: 1-72.

Bowling: Harvinder Singh 5-1-20-0, J P Yadav 8-4-5-0, Sanjay Bangar 2-1-8-0, Kulamani Parida 4-0-15-0, Tejinder Pal Singh 3-0-11-1, Sidharth Verma 2-1-9-0.