Cricket became the loser, while Railways and Orissa contended themselves with one point each in their four-day Ranji Trophy Super League (Group-A) match, which ended in boring draw at the East Coast Railway ground in Bhubaneswar today. Unseasonal rain and inept management of the ground by host Orissa Cricket Association did not allow completion of the first innings of both the sides. After rain ruined last two sessions of play on the second day, it was wet outfield which prevented play for the entire third day. OCA, of course brought a super soaker from Cuttack to dry out the ground. But it was too late. Despite struggling at the bottom of the points table, the two teams chose to play defensive cricket and allowed the match to end in futility. Put into bat, the railway side made a disappointing 176 for four on the opening day. When rain stopped play shortly after lunch on the second day, Railways were 297 for eight. Still not happy, the Murali Kartik led railway side batted five more overs on the last day before declaring their first innings at 307 for eight. But Kartik defended the decision, saying ``We continued our first innings with the intention to post a 300-plus total, which we thought would put some psychological pressure on Orissa.’’ The home side also did not make any conscious attempt to go for the all-important first innings lead. Instead, skipper Shiv Sundar Das and his teammates scored at a snail’s pace (1.67 runs per over) and ended up compiling 132 for four in 79 overs when bad light stopped play with 11 overs still to go. Orissa now remain at the bottom of the table with two points, while Railways (3 points) occupy the sixth position in the eight-team group `A’. In the fourth round of matches to be played from November 24 to 27, Orissa would meet seventh-placed Hyderabad (3 points) at Hyderabad, while Railways would take on No 2 Mumbai (9 points) at Delhi. SCOREBOARD: RAILWAYS (1st innings): F Fazal (run out) 32, V Cheluvaraj c SS Das b Sahoo 88, S Bangar c H Das b D Mohanty 10, TP Singh b B Mohanty 11, Y Goud c H Das b A Sahoo 23, S Sanyal b B Mohanty 26, M Rawat (not out) 39, KV Sharma lbw b D Mohanty 0, M Kartik c Pati b D Mohanty 12, K Upadhyay (not out) 49: Extras (b-3, lb-12, nb-1, w-1) 17. Total (8 wkts decl, 125 overs) 307 Fall of wickets: 1-53, 2-79, 3-107, 4-142, 5-186, 6-191, 7-219, 8-219 Bowling: Debasis Mohanty 32-13-42-3, Basant Mohanty 32-9-66-2, Alok Sahoo 28-4-88-2, Dhiraj Singh 25-3-84-0, Niranjan Behera 7-1-10-0, Rakesh Mohanty 1-0-2-0. ORISSA (1st innings): Bikash Pati c Rawat b Gehlot 10, Shiv Sundar Das c Rawat b Bangar 41, Niranjan Behera b Sanyal 7, Rakesh Mohanty (not out) 37, Pravanjan Mullick c Rawat b Sharma 14, Haladhar Das (not out) 14: Extras (b-1, lb-1, nb-6, w-1) 9 Total (4 wkts, 79 overs) 132 Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-59, 3-67, 4-102 Bowling: S Gehlot 12-5-31-1, K Upadhyay 15-5-27-0, S Bangar 17-9-23-1, S Sanyal 8-1-14-1, M Kartik 11-3-19-0, K Sharma 14-7-15-1, F Fazal 1-0-1-0, TP Singh 1-1-0-0.