The Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' match between Tamil Nadu and Punjab ended in a draw at Chennai on Thursday with the hosts earning two points by virtue of a first innings lead.

The hosts, who took the vital 26-run first innings lead yesterday and were 190 for 3 overnight, never took any risks and played out the day, making 408 for nine in 159 overs when the match was called off at the end of the eighth mandatory over.

With two points from this match, Tamil Nadu now have 11 points with two matches to go against Baroda and Maharashtra, while Punjab, who have already made it to the knockout semi-final grade, remained on 16 points with one more match to play.

Punjab bowlers failed to trouble the hosts and let them off the hook today.

Overnight batsmen Subramaniam Badrinath and left-handed veteran Sridharan Sharath batted put on 163 runs for the fourth wicket in 255 minutes off 398 balls, before the former was clean bowled by Sandeep Sanwal for 97, which came in 359 minutes and contained 11 hits to the fence.

First innings centurion K Sri Vasudevadas and Sharath then looked to consolidating the innings, but Sharath did not last long as he edged to Keeper Pankaj Dharmani off Reetinder Singh Sodhi. Sharath's 112 came off 253 balls and contained14 fours.

Two more wickets fell in quick succession for just one run but Ramakrishnan Ramkumar and Das put on 46 runs to rescue the team before the former fell for 23. In the very next mandatory over, Vasudevadas (43) made his exit but Arjun Sarathy (1) and Rajamani Jesuraj (2) defied the attack till play was called off.

Brief scores:

Tamil Nadu 244 and 408 for 9 in 159 overs (Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan 99, S Badrinath 97, S Sharath 112, KVasudevadas 43, Rajesh Sharma 3/99, Navdeep Singh 3/68) drew with Punjab 218.