Railways overcame a sudden slump midway through their innings on way to a three-wicket victory over Orissa for their first win in the five-team Group A league of the All India Inter State Twenty20 Tournament in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Railways, chasing Orissa's modest score of 101 for eight, were comfortably cruising along at 85 for three when Orissa's left arm spinner Paresh Patel triggered a collapse to reduce them to 87 for 7 in no time at the Brabourne Stadium.

However, India discard Debasish Mohanty could not sustain the good work of Patel and his spin colleague Nilesh Behra, who captured three wickets apiece, and was carted for a huge six and a four by Babu Rao Yadav which ended Orissa's hopes.

Yadav remained unbeaten on 15 in 12 balls as Railways made 104 for 7 in 17.1 overs. The early thrust to their innings was provided by opener Amit Pagnis (14), left hander Tej Pal Singh (40 in 32 balls with a six and four fours) and Sanjib Sanyal (23 off 16 balls).

Earlier, Orissa - asked to bat first, struggled right through their innings before reaching three figures. Behra top-scored with 23 but all the batsmen struggled against Railways slow bowlers Kulamani Parida and G Shankar Rao who captured five wickets between them.

Railways had earlier lost to Punjab in their opener while the second successive loss has put Orissa out of reckoning.

Brief Scores: Orissa 101 for 8 (Niranjan Behra 23, R R Das 15, P Mullick 15; K Parida 2 for 12, G Shankar Rao 3 for 20) lost to Railways 104 for 7 (T P Singh 40, S Sanyal 23, R Yadav 15 not out; Behra 3 for 22, P Patel 3 for 8).

KARNATAKA BEAT GUJARAT

Karnataka recovered from their opening game reversal to record a four-wicket victory over Gujarat in their second Group A league match of the all-India Twenty20 Tournament at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday.

Chasing Gujarat's total of 151 for 9, Karnataka were struggling at 38 for 4 at one stage but fought back to overhaul the challenging score with just three balls to spare.

The winning runs were scored by middle-order batsman Deepak Chougule (41 n.O) who struck a boundary off left-arm seamer Ashraf Makda through the point region.

With things looking extremely difficult after the top order was rocked, it was the fluent 51-run stand for the fifth wicket between Chougule and B Akhil (35) that brought Karnataka back into contention.

Vinay Kumar came up with a quickfire 24 that helped Karnataka keep pace with the required run-rate.

Earlier, Gujarat, put in to bat, made a sound start before losing their way in the last five overs when they lost seven wickets for just 28 runs.

Opener Azhar Bilakhia played a lone hand, making 62 off 47 balls but none of the others apart from wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel (26) offered any support.

Karnakata, virtue of this win got their campaign back on track while for Gujarat it was their second defeat in three matches.