Tamil Nadu are on course for a repeat of last year final against Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy having achieved the vital first innings lead against Railways in the five-day semi-final in Chennai on Wednesday.

Mumbai made the grade after winning their semi-final against Hyderabad by an innings and 152 runs on the third day of the match in Mumbai on Tuesday.

With only a day left, the Tamil Nadu - Railways match is heading for a tame draw. Tamil Nadu will make it to the final by virtue of the first innings lead.

Tamil Nadu, who lost to Mumbai in the final last year, took a 139-run lead, bowling out Railways for 342.

Tamil Nadu had scored 481 in the first innings.

At close, the hosts, in their second essay, were 128 for 2 with Sadagoppan Ramesh (57) and S Badrinath (7) at the crease.

Resuming at 251 for five, Railways' innings got derailed at the fall of Raja Ali's wicket. His overnight partner and captain, J P Yadav, scored a century but ran out of partners before being the ninth man out.

For Tamil Nadu, spinner Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan stole the limelight, claiming three wickets for 55 runs.

However, Yadav, who was 73 overnight, duly reached the three-figure mark, scoring 116 (319 minutes, 12x4, 1x5, 3x6) and added 135 runs in 169 minutes with Ali for the sixth wicket, which was the only bright patch of the innings.

Ali scored a valuable 61 (9x4) but Parida (4) and Wankhade (5) were out cheaply, while Harvinder failed to score.

Scoreboard

Tamil Nadu (1^st innings): 481

Railways (1^st innings):
S.Khonalkar lbw S.Suresh 31
S.Bangar c Badrinath b Ramkumar 47
T.P.Singh c Sharath b Ramkumar 24
Yere Goud c Karthik b Ganapathy 9
J.P.Yadav c Dinesh Karthik b Vidyuth 116
S.Varma c Ramkumar b Suresh 13
Raja Ali c Vasudeva Das b Vidyuth 61
Sudhir wankhede lbw b Vidyuth 5
Harvinder Singh c Badrinath b C.Ganapathy 0
K.Parida b Tamilkumaran 4
Madan Yadav not out 3

Extras: (b1, lb8, w6, nb14) 29

Total: (all out in 133.1 overs) 342

Fall of wickets: 1-65, 2-99, 3-113, 4-122, 5-181, 6-315, 7-332, 8-333, 9-333.

Bowling: D.Tamil Kumaran 27.1-10-72-1; Ganapathy 27-8-68-2; Ramkumar 35-17-76-2; Suresh 20-2-55-2; Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan 21-8-55-3; S Sriram 3-1-7-0.

Tamil Nadu (2nd innings):
S Suresh b Harvinder 25
S Ramesh batting 57
S Sriram c Wankhade b Goud 38
S Badrinath batting 7

Extras: (nb) 1

Total: (for two in 52 overs) 128

Fall of wickets: 1-40, 2-108

Bowling: Harvinder Singh 8-1-29-1; J P Yadav 2-0-6-0; Madan Yadav 20-4-50-0; K Parida 10-3-23-0; Sanjay Bangar 7-2-7-0; Yere Goud 4-0-12-1; Shreyas Khonalkar 1-0-1-0.