Ravichandran Ashwin and Manimaran Siddharth picked up four wickets apiece as Tamil Nadu bundled out Railways for just 76 in the first innings of the ongoing Ranji Trophy encounter. 

Ashwin bagged 4/26 while Siddharth returned with figures of 4/32 to help their team take a giant step towards a much-needed outright victory.  Only middle-order batsman Saurabh Singh (22) reached the 20-run mark among Railways batsmen with Ashish Sehrawat (15) making the innings' second-highest score. 

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In response, veteran opener Abhinav Mukund raced his way to a century (100) till tea as Tamil Nadu surpassed the opposition total to take a lead of 80 runs without any wicket conceded. The 156-run opening stand also included half-century (50) from Laxmesha Suryaprakash. 

After tea, though, Railways bounced back with the wickets of both Mukund and Suryaprakash, without them adding a run to their scores post the break. 

Tamil Nadu is under threat of being relegated from the combined Elite Group A & B after suffering two outright losses and having three draws in the first five rounds of the competition. 

Brief scores: 
Railways 76/10 (Saurabh Singh 22; Ashwin 4/26) is behind Tamil Nadu 174/2 (Abhinav Mukund 100; Harsh Tyagi 1/135) by 98 runs