South Zone were trailing by 72 runs with eight wickets in hand in the first innings after bowling out Central Zone for 209 earlier in the day. South Zone opener Abhinav Mukund was batting on 61 with Baba Aparajith on 35 when stumps were called.

Earlier, after resuming their innings on 123 for the loss of five wickets, Piyush Chawla struck a half-century to take Central Zone to 209. Striking at regular intervals Pragyan Ojha and Baba Aparajith claimed two wickets each on second day while Malolan Rangarajan picked one to restrict Central Zone to a modest score.

South Zone opener Abhinav Mukund then helped the team to reach 137 for two at the end of day’s play with a determined 61-run knock. After losing Akshath Reddy and Lokesh Rahul early in the innings, Aparajith joined Mukund in the middle and the duo’s added 64 when the play ended.

Brief scores:

At the end of Day 2: Central Zone 1st innings 209 all out in 85.4 (P Chawla 56, P Ojha 3/49, B Aparajith 2/13); South Zone 1st innings 137/2 in 63 overs (A Mukund 61*, B Aparajith 35*)

At the end of Day 1: Central Zone 1st innings 123/5 in 50.2 overs (M Dagar 45, A Mithun 3/24)