Railways brightened their chances of a place in the semifinals forcing Baroda on to the backfoot on day two of their four-day Elite group 'A' Ranji Trophy match at Vadodara on Friday.

Railways, who earlier finished their first innings at 353, reduced the hosts to 73 for five at stumps.

Baroda, struggling to avoid the follow on, still need 131 runs with five wickets in hand to make Railways bat again.

Resuming at their overnight score of 278 for six, Railways added another 75 runs to their score.

In reply, Baroda got off to a poor start losing two quick wickets when the scoreboard read six runs.

However, the 30-run third wicket partnership between vice-captain Satyajit Parab and captain Jacob Martin helped the hosts take their total to 36 before Martin was clean bowled by speeedster Harvinder Singh.

After Martin's wicket, Parab and Shatrunjay Gaekwad also fell by adding just 14 runs.

At close of play, former India stumper Nayan Mongia (17) and Tushar Arothe (11) were at the crease.

Railways captain Harvinder Singh was most successfully bowlers for the visitors claiming four wickets.

Scorecard:

Railways 1st Innings: (Overnight 278 for 6):
S Khanolkar c Mongia b R Patel           24
Amit Pagnis lbw R Patel                       4
T P Singh lbw Ajit Bhoite                  114
Siddharth Verma b S Joshi                 1
Raja Ali b A Bhoite                           42
Yere Goud b Arothe                          54
Sudhir Wankhede c R Patel b Bhoite   22
Harvinder Singh b R Patel                    31
Kulmani Parida c Mongia b Arothe      32
Santosh Saxena lbw R Patel                0
Madan Yadav not out                        0

Extras: (b 10, lb 10, nb 9)              29

Total: (all out, 142.3 overs)           353

Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-36, 3-41, 4-180, 5-209, 6-235, 7-288, 8-343, 9-346.

Bowling: Rakesh Patel 34-16-40-4, Shekhar Joshi 24-5-72-1, Ajit Bhoite 38-5-91-3, Tushar Arothe 20.3-5-60-2, Valmik Buch 26-4-70-0.

Baroda 1st Innings:
R Parab c Parida b Saxena                          1
S Parab c Khanolkar b Harvinder               31
C Williams c Pagnis b Harvinder                 1
J Martin b Harvinder                                 2
Nayan Mongia not out                             17
S Gaekwad b Harvinder                          0
Tushar Arothe not out                             11

Extras: (b 6, lb 2, nb 2)                      10

Total: (For 5 wkts, 37 overs)                 73

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-6, 3-36, 4-43, 5-57.

Bowling: Harvinder Singh 11-4-17-4, Santosh Saxena 12-3-20-1, Madan Yadav 8-3-15-0, Kulmani Parida 4-0-7-0, Shreyas Khandolkar 2-1-6-0.