The Central Railway medium-pacer hustled opponents Bharat Petroleum as the latter were bundled out for a paltry 77 runs in the Times Shield A Division second round Group B match.

Saxena, representing the Mumbai Cricket Association Colts, had claimed five wickets conceding 20 runs in a Police Shield match two days ago.

Bharat Petroleum, however, managed to attain the three-figure mark as the railwaymen had bowled six overs short resulting in the former's first innings total swell to 106.

In reply, Central Railway (113-5) had overtaken the opponents total when stumps were drawn for the day. The stars returned to bolster Elf Lubricants but failed to sparkle as they were bundled out for 146 by Air-India at the Elf-Vengsarkar Academy, Oval Maidan.

Elf were fighting against the wall as Air-India in reply were 55 for 2 with two of their seasoned campaigners SameerDighe (22) and Pravin Amre (5) at the crease.

Skipper Amol Muzumdar (5) and Hrishikesh Kanitkar (28) failed to live up to the expectations on a seamy track. Put into bat by Air-India skipper Sanjay Manjrekar, Elf were reeling at 77-7 at one stage.

Atul Ranade, who came in at number eight, salvaged some pride for the hosts with some aggressive batting display. In the company of tailenders Paras Mhambrey (12) and Nilesh Kulkarni (6), he registered identical partnerships of 39 runs each for the eight and ninth wickets. Ranade remained unbeaten on a well compiled 53 (77b, 9x4).

Medium-pacers Bhupinder Singh (3-38) and Santosh Dubey (3-42) did most of the damage.

Western Railway crawled to 125-6 against Tata Sports Club in a Group A match at the Mahalaxmi Stadium while Indian Oil made 100-2 against Sun-Grace Mafatlal after wet ground conditions delayed the start till 2.30 p.m. at the MiG Club, Bandra.

Brief Scores: Group A: Elf Lubricants 146 in 63 overs

(Hrishikesh Kanitkar 28, Atul Ranade 53;Bhupendra Singh 3-38, Santosh Dubey 3-42) vs Air-India 55-2 in 24 overs

(Sameer Dighe batting 22, Pravin Amre batting 5)

Western Railway 125-6 in 89 overs (Tushar Shringare 38, Raja Adatrao 37; Subroto Banerjee 3-14, Sriram Kannan 2-36) vs Tata SC

Group B: Indian Oil 100-2

(Mahesh Karanjkar batting 32, Mayur Kadrekar batting 22; Zahir Khan 2-37) vs Sun-Grace Mafatlal

Bharat Petroleum 106

(Abhijit Kale 21; Santosh Saxena 6-36, Manoj Kumar 2-11) vs Central Railway 113-5

(Sujit Gadkari 27, Rajendra Jalal 28; Vishwas Walawalkar 3-43, Sunil Limaye 2-12)