Saxena followed up his 6-36 in the first innings by claiming another impressive haul of 4-24 to end up with superb match figures of 26.2-6-60-10.

After BPCL were bowled out for 106, Central Railway replied with 203. Leg-spinner Sunil Limaye led BPCL's fightback capturing 6-42.

However, the BPCL batsmen fared badly in the second essay and were skittled out for a paltry 73 with Saxena and medium-pacer Mannu Kumar (4-24) doing most of the damage.

Even though Central Railway were penalised 15 runs, the BPCL second innings could only reach 88 which was nine runs short of making the opposition bat again.

Though Saxena's effort saw the three-day encounter wind up well within two days, focus on the other matches largely dwelt on teams that took the lead.

Former Testbatsman Sanjay Manjrekar's quick-fire 85 (87b, 13x4, 1x6) and his 126-run association with a sedate Pravin Amre 66 (163b, 5x4, 1x6) powered Air-India to a 84-run lead over Elf Lubricants at the Elf-Vengsarkar Academy, Oval Maidan. However, once Manjrekar departed the rest simply caved in with the last six wickets tumbling for 30 runs.

Elf overcame a middle-order collapse today to post 268 in the second innings. Struggling at 149-7, Hrishikesh Kanitkar (55: 141b, 5x4, 1x6) and Paras Mhambrey (58: 109b, 5x4, 2x6) steered the side to safety with a 75-run stand for the eight wicket.

Amol Muzumdar (33) and tailender Abey Kuruvilla (28) were the other useful contributors.

At MiG CLub, Bandra, Indian Oil medium-pacer Manish Patel returned fine figures of 26.3-3-80-5 which restricted Sun-Grace Mafatlal to 236. In the event, IOC gained a 44-run lead.

Defending champions Tata Sports Club surged ahead of Western Railway's first innings score of 251, before declaring the innings at 264-8 at the Mahalaxmi Stadium.Wicket-keeper Saba Karim (84) led the run charge with Kiran Pawar (69) and Nishit Shetty (44 not out) providing an able support cast.

Brief Scores

Group A: Elf Lubricants 146 & 268 in 108.3 overs (Sachin Sawant 36, Amol Muzumdar 33, Hrishikesh Kanitkar 55, Paras Mhambrey 58, Abey Kuruvilla 28; Bhupinder Singh 3-49, Satish Samant 3-34, Premal Rachh 3-69) drew with Air-India 230 in 83.2 overs (Sameer Dighe 29, Pravin Amre 66, Sanjay Manjrekar 85; Mhambrey 4-42, Nilesh Kulkarni 3-48, Sairaj Bahutule 2-69) & 29-2 in 8 overs

Western Railway 251 (Tushar Shringare 38, Raja Adatrao 37, Sujit Nakhare 66, Bhimesh Shah 39 n.o., Banerjee 3-30, Sandeep Dahad 2-56, Kannan 2-60, Khandwala 2-35) & 0-0 drew with Tata SC 264-8 decl (Kiran Pawar 69, Saba Karim 84, Nishit Shetty 44 n.o., Iqbal Thakur 4-73, Venkatesh Mudaliar 4-58)

Group B: Bharat Petroleum 106 & 88 (inclusive of 15 penalty runs) in 26.2 overs (Abhijit Kale 19; Santosh Saxena 4-24, Mannu Kumar 4-30) lost to Central Railway 203 in 46.5 overs(Sujit Gadkari 27, Rajendra Jalal 28, Atul Deshpande 26, D Panwar 29, Mannu Kumar 27; Sunil Limaye 6-42, Vishwas Walawalkar 3-50) by an innings and nine runs.

Indian Oil 280 (inclusive of 12 penalty runs) in 88. 1 overs (Mahesh Karanjkar 95, Mayur Kadrekar 25, Mandar Phadke 28, Iqbal Siddiqui 34; Rajesh Pawar 3-59, Robin Morris 2-64, Zahir Khan 2-50) & 89-3 (Wasim Jaffer 58 n.o.) drew with Sun-Grace Mafatlal 226 (inclusive of 23 penalty runs) in 71.1 overs (Milind Tamhane 33, Rohan Gavaskar 60, Iqbal Khan 23, Rajesh Pawar 21; Manish Patel 5-80, Mushtaq Khan 2-24

Points position

Group A: Air-India & Tatas 10 points each, Elf Lubricants & Western Railway 6 each.

Group B: Central Railway 8 points, Indian Oil 7, Sung-Grace Mafatlal 3, Bharat Petroleum 2