Here are brief roundups of various Ranji Trophy matches being played in the country.

Punjab vs Railways, at New Delhi

Punjab breezed into the quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy while Railways fell by the wayside after the Super League match between the Group A teams petered out to a tame draw.

Railways needed nothing short of an outright win to reach the quarterfinals while Punjab needed just one point and in the end, the visitors got three points from the outing -- thanks to their 125-run first innings lead -- to move into last eight while the hosts crashed out of the race.

Punjab will take on Karnataka in the quarterfinals from December 24 at Bangalore.

With no result in sight, Railways resumed their second innings on 16 for one and reached 230 for four at stumps.

Sanjay Bangar was unbeaten on 115 from 263 balls with 10 fours and three sixes in it. Harshad Rawle was the next best scorer with his patient 138-ball 40.

Overnight batsman V Cheluvaraj fell early to Rajwinder Singh and then Rahul Sharma caught TP Singh off his own bowling to reduce the hosts to 62 for three.

Bangar and Rawle added 123 runs for the fourth wicket before the latter departed.

Brief score: Railways: 276 & 230 for 4; Punjab: 401.

Hyderabad vs Tamil Nadu, at Hyderabad

Hosts Hyderabad was relegated to the plate division of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament for the first time after their Super League Group A match against Tamil Nadu ended in a tame draw.

Needing an outright win to stay afloat in the Super League, Hyderabad bowed before the batting prowess of a confident Tamil Nadu side, who came into the match with their place already secured in the quarterfinals of the elite domestic tournament.

Tamil Nadu will now lock horns with Delhi in the quarterfinals at Palam from December 24.

For Tamil Nadu, the match against Hyderabad was an ideal opportunity for practice and their batters put a mammoth 785 on the board in reply to Hyderabad's 347.

Tamil Nadu added 191 runs to their overnight score to take a mammoth 438 runs first innings lead, thereby ensuring Hyderabad's demotion to the plate division.

Apart from Abhinav Mukund (257) and S Badrinath (122), C Ganapathy also made his mark with a 192-ball 126 that included 14 fours and a six.

Hyderabad made 148 for two wickets in their second innings, riding on Abhinav Kumar's unbeaten 103 that came off just 92 balls with the help of 13 boundaries and two sixes.

Brief Scores: Hyderabad: 347 & 148 for 2; Tamil Nadu: 785.

Delhi vs Bengal, at Kolkata

Former champions Delhi qualified for the quarterfinals as they managed to collect one point after their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match against Bengal ended in a draw.

Having finished with 16 points, Delhi ended on third spot in the group and will take on Group A toppers Tamil Nadu in their last eight tie in New Delhi from December 24-27.

Karnataka (28 points) and Uttar Pradesh (18) finished first and second respectively in Group B.

Bengal (11) logged three points on the basis of their first innings lead but it was not enough for them to make the next stage as they finished the 2009-10 season on the fifth spot.

In reply to Bengal's mammoth first innings total of 522, Delhi were bowled out for 378 as wicketkeeper Puneet Bisht remained unbeaten on 128.

In their second essay, Bengal rode on a 186-run opening stand between Arindam Das (102 retired hurt) and Rohan Banerjee (77) to score 223 for three.

Resuming at their overnight score of 348 for seven, Delhi on Friday avoided the follow-on and added 30 runs before Bisht ran out of partners.

Ishant Sharma, who was not out on 16, failed to add any to his overnight score and was the first of the three victims that Bengal left-arm spinner Iresh Saxena claimed on Friday.

The youngster finished with five for 72 from his 36.1 overs as the Delhi tailenders fell to the guile of Saxena.

Last two Delhi batsmen, Parvinder Awana (2) and Vikash Misra (2) were Saxena's fourth and fifth victims as Delhi finished 144 runs behind.

To complete the formalities, Bengal batted for the remaining period on the concluding day and made 227 losing two wickets.

The highlight of Bengal's second innings was opener Das' innings before he retired hurt in the 50th over.

Das was given a fine support at the other end by Rohan Banerjee who made 77 as Bengal's opening duo stitched 186 runs before the latter was run out by Gaurav Chabra.

Das hit 15 boundaries in his 165-ball knock while Banerjee faced 137 balls out of which he struck 10 boundaries.

Karnataka vs Saurashtra, at Rajkot

Already through to the quarterfinals, Karnataka spanked Saurashtra by six wickets in their Ranji Trophy Elite Division Group B match.

Set 240 for a win on the fourth and final day, the visitors achieved the target in 52.2 overs, losing only four wickets in the process at the SCA Stadium.

The main contributors for were G Satish (68 not out), Manish Pandey (68) and skipper Robin Uthappa (47).

Karnataka secured four points from the match to remain on top of Group B.

Saurashtra suffered their third straight defeat after their earlier defeats against Delhi and Baroda.

G Satish, who cracked a brilliant 120 in the first innings, came good again and hit an unbeaten 68 off 139 balls.

Pandey made a 73-ball 68, studded with seven fours and two sixes. Uthappa, who promoted himself to open the innings, made a quickfire 47 off 36 balls with the help of nine fours.

For Saurashtra, Rakesh Dhruv took two wicket.

Earlier, resuming at overnight score of 389 for 8, the hosts were all out for 407 after facing only five overs on Friday.

Pratik Mehta remained unbeaten on 77.

S Arvind and U Patel took three Saurashtra wickets each giving away 11 and 98 runs respectively.

Brief scores: Saurashtra 216 and 407 lost to Karnataka 384 and 241 for 4 (Robin Uthappa 47, Manish Pandey 68, G Satish not out 68; Rakesh Dhruv 2 for 64).

Baroda vs Maharashtra, at Pune

Baroda registerd a straightforward seven-wicket win over Maharashtra in their last Group B Super League Ranji Trophy match, but lost out on a quarterfinal spot to Delhi after they failed to overhaul the 101 run target set by the hosts without losing a wicket.

Had they managed to reach 101 run mark without any loss, Baroda would have made the quarterfinals ahead of Delhi but the loss of bonus point means they finish in fourth place.

On the other hand, Maharashtra had very little to celebrate as they were relegated to the Plate League of the tournament.

Starting at the overnight score of two for one, Baroda took only 25 overs on the fourth and final day to overhaul the paltry target set by Maharashtra.

Baroda's run chase mainly revolved around Kedar Devdhar, who struck an unbeaten 53 off 79 balls which had four boundaries studded in it.

For Maharashtra, leg-spinneer Digambhar Waghmare picked up two wickets for 24 runs from his five overs, while Samad Fallah claimed one victim.

Brief Scores: Maharashtra: 288 & 207; Baroda: 395 & 101.

Gujarat vs Mumbai, at Mumbai

Mumbai bowlers had something to cheer about before the start of Ranji Trophy knock out phase as a good show by them allowed the hosts pocket three vital points in their final Super League Group A match against Gujarat.

The visitors, who resumed the fourth and final day at 432-3 and looked on course to march ahead of the hosts' first innings score of 648-6 declared, lost their remaining seven wickets for the addition of 70 runs to be bowled out for 502, conceding a lead of 146 runs.

In their second essay, Mumbai made 180 for the loss of two wickets, with openers Sahil Kukreja (84) and Sushant Marathe (81) scoring most of the runs.

Earlier, Gujarat skipper Parthiv Patel 149 (248 balls, 15X4, 1X6) could add only one run to his overnight score of 148 before he was removed by off-spinner Ramesh Powar. He added 266 runs for the fourth wicket with Bhavik Thakkar.

Parthiv's wicket triggered a lower order collapse as Mumbai bowlers, who took only three wickets in 119 overs till Thursday, scalped the last six wickets in 30.1 overs.

Thakkar made 122 (290 balls, 11X4, 3X6) before he was caught behind off Agarkar.

Medium pacer Avishkar Salvi polished off the tail to end with figures of 3-37. Dhawal Kulkarni (3-67) and Ramesh Powar (2-144) were the other successful bowlers for the hosts.

Himachal Pradesh vs Orissa, at Dharamshala

Himachal Pradesh pacer Ashok Thakur destroyed Orissa's top order with a six wicket haul to reduce the visitors' second essay to 183 for eight as their four-day Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match ended in a draw.

Thakur (6 for 38) knocked the daylight out of Orissa with his triple strikes in the opening spell that completely unhinged the visitors.

Bikas Pati (0), skipper Shiv Sundar Dass (6) and Niranjan Behera (0) fell to Thakur's pace and returned to the pavillion at Orissa scorecard reading 11 for 3.

Rakesh Mohanty (21) and Pravarjan Mullick (19) tried to stabilise the innings with their brief partnership stand of 48 runs, but Thakur again knocked off the stumps of Mohanty.

His pace partner Mohinderraj Sharma (2 for 68) also joined the party and chipped in with the wicket of Mullick.

Subharajit Sahoo (33) and Halhadar Das (47) then tried to consolidate the innings and added 68 runs for the sixth wicket to take the score to 128, before Thakur bowled out Sahoo.

Earlier resuming 360 for 7, overnight batsman V A Indulkar (165) and Vikramajeet Malik (72) started the proceedings on a cautious note and took the Himachal score to 429 before being separated by Mohanty.

After that Malik and Thakur (14) took the score to 486 before being all out.

Brief Scores: Himachal Pradesh: 125 & 486; Orissa: 316 & 183 for 8.