West take complete control

North Zone 36 for 3 (Munaf 2-11) trail West Zone 769 (Nayar 259, Powar 109, Kulkarni 50) by 733 runs
Scorecard

It was a double blow for North Zone as they found themselves three down after spending the better part of the day witnessing West Zone's batting masterclass in Rajkot. Abhishek Nayar continued emphatically from his overnight score of 102, and stubbed out any hopes of North accounting for the lower order early. The early departures of Ravindra Jadeja and Irfan Pathan raised the visitors' spirits, until they ran into Ramesh Powar. Together with Nayar he added 197 for the eighth wicket to take West past the 600-mark. Powar soon reached his seventh first-class hundred, comprising 13 boundaries and a six, as Nayar eased past 200. Mumbai paceman Dhawal Kulkarni inflicted further damage with a 81-ball 50. Nayar became Vikas Mishra's fourth victim, having hit 38 fours and five sixes, as West were bowled out in the 82nd over of the day. Irfan and Munaf Patel made early inroads into the North batting during the reply, leaving them tottering at 7 for 3 at one stage.

South Zone 254 for 8 (Ashwin 58, Gautam 52, Praveen 5-48) trail Central Zone 333 (Kaif 112, Chawla 90*, Vinay 5-102) by 79 runs
Scorecard

A stirring fightback from the South Zone middle-order set up an interesting scrap for first-innings honours on a day dominated by fast bowlers in Indore. Resuming at 300 for 7, Central's innings was ended at 333, with Piyush Chawla stranded ten short of a hundred. Karnataka seamer R Vinay Kumar continued his wonderful form, picking all three Central wickets to fall, finishing with a five-for. South's reply was derailed by Praveen Kumar who struck regularly to remove the top four. Pankaj Singh then trapped Manish Pandey in front and South seemed to be in trouble at 65 for 5. Muralidharen Gautam and Ravichandran Ashwin then put their heads together to initiate a strong fightback. The pair added 108 in 166 balls, striking 19 fours in between them, as both passed fifty. RP Singh then got into the thick of things, removing both batsmen, before Chandrasekar Ganapathy and Vinay sparked a second revival. They added 77 to put South back on track, but Praveen came back to get Ganapathy with stumps in sight.