Mumbai and Tamil Nadu will clash in the Ranji Trophy final for the second successive year.

The match will be played in Chennai from March 26.

Tamil Nadu qualified for the title clash by virtue of a 139-run first innings lead over Railways after their semi-final ended in a draw in Chennai on Thursday.

Mumbai, who won the Ranji Trophy for the 35th time last year, reached the final beating Hyderabad on the third day of their semi-final on home turf on Tuesday.

The fate of the other semi-final was sealed when two-time champions Tamil Nadu, resuming at 128 for 2, chose to continue their second innings until being bowled out for 306.

That left Railways an improbable target of 445 to chase in 33 overs.

The visitors managed to score 117, losing five wickets in 26 overs, before the match was called off after the rival captains agreed to a draw in the eighth mandatory over.

The highlight of the day's play was a superb 97 by Test discard Sadagopan Ramesh. He faced 226 balls in 286 minutes and hit 11 fours before being stumped by Sudhir Wankhade off Madan Yadav, who claimed four wickets and conceded 117 runs.

Wankhade went on to finish with a rich haul of five victims.

Off-spinner K Parida too was at his best, sending back four Tamil Nadu batsmen for figures of 25.4-5-65-4.

Scoreboard

Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 481 all out

Railways (1st innings): 342 all out

Tamil Nadu (2nd innings):
S.Suresh b Harvinder Singh 25
S.Ramesh st S Wankhade b Madan Yadav 97
S.Sriram c S Wankhade b Yere Goud 38
S.Badrinath st. S Wankhade B Madan Yadav 26
K.Sri Vasudeva Das c S.Wankhade b K.Parida 16
S.Vidyuth c S.Khonalkar b K.Parida 4
K.Dinesh Karthik c T.P.Singh b K.Parida 48
R.Ramkumar c S.Khonalkar b Madan Yadav 19
S.Sharath st. S.Wankhade b Madan Yadav 2
C.Ganapathy not out 12
D.Tamilkumaran b K.Parida 9

Extras: (b6, lb1, nb3) 10

Total: (All out in 106.4 overs) 306

Fall of wickets: 1-40, 2-108, 3-173, 4-193, 5-198, 6-224, 7-269, 8-277, 9-291.

Bowling: Harvinder Singh 11-2-40-1; J.P.Yadav 7-1-16-0; Madan Yadav 39-8-117-4; K.Parida 25.4-5-65-4; Sanjay Bangar 7-2-7-0; Yere Goud 13-0-37-1; S.Khonalkar 4-0-17-0.

Railways (2nd innings):
S.Khonalkar c Karthik b Ganapathy 7
S.Bangar c Karthik b Ganapathy 0
Raja Ali lbw b Badrinath 36
Yere Goud b Ganatphy 0
J.P.Yadav lbw b D.Tamilkumaran 5
S.Varma not out 39
T.P.Singh not out 24

Extras: (b-4, nb-2) 6

Total: (for 5 wkts in 26 overs) 117

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-10, 3-10, 4-15, 5-79

Bowling: Ganapathy 9-2-20-3; D.Tamilkumaran 5-3-11-1, S.Badrinath 8-2-43-1; K.Sri Vasudeva Das 4-0-39-0.