South Zone suffered a humiliating batting collapse to surrender the first innings lead to England 'A' in the Duleep Trophy cricket match at the TERI Oval ground in Gurgaon on Sunday.

South, without the batting services of captain Sadagopan Ramesh, who suffered a finger injury while fielding on Saturday, resembled a rudderless aircraft and were all out for 174 in 42.3 overs, falling 103 runs short of the tourists' 377.

Seamer Sreeshant then picked two wickets to peg back England 'A' , who were 88 for three in their second essay at stumps on the second day.

Earlier, resuming at 308 for seven, the English tail frustrated South, with Graham Napier (76) and Simon Jones (23) adding 56 runs for the ninth wicket.

Left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi returned with four for 106 while N P Singh and Ramkumar grabbed two wickets each.

South lost their openers, makeshift Ibrahim Khaleel (1) and Rowland Barrington (0), for three before Sridharan Sriram and Venugopalarao added 74 runs for the third wicket.

But the dismissal of Sriram (44) was followed by a middle order collapse which saw South slide to 96 for six.

R Ramkumar (43) then gave Venugopalarao (58 no) some support as the two pushed the score to 166 before the former fell to James Tredwell.

Tredwell went on to wipe out the tail to finish with four for 41 while Simon Jones took 2-24.

Scoreboard
England 'A' (Ist innings):
S Newman run out                  31
E Smith b Singh                  27
M Lumb c Khaleel b Joshi          1
K Peiterson c Singh b Joshi      104
M Prior lbw b Joshi              66
B Shafayat c Joshi b Ramkumar      0
G Napier c Khaleel b Ramkumar    76
J Tredwell c Joshi b Sreeshant    15
S Mahmood lbw b N P Singh        14
S Jones c Khaleel b Joshi        23
S Francis not out                  0

Extras (b-6, lb-7, nb-6, w-1)    20
Total (all out in 102.2 overs)  377
Fall of wickets: 1/50, 2/55, 3/98, 4/241, 5/242, 6/244, 7/306, 8-321, 9-377.
Bowling: N P Singh 24-5-93-2, Sreeshant 13-1-58-1, Sunil Joshi 34.2-7-106-4, R Ramkumar 22-4-67-2, Y Venugopalarao 5-1-17-0, S Sriram 4-0-23-0.

South Zone (1st innings):
I Khaleel lbw b Francis                  1
R Barrington c Lumb b S Mahmood          0
S Sriram b Tredwell                    44
Y Venugopalarao not out                58
S Sharath c Lumb b Jones                0
S Badrinath lbw b Jones                  2
S Joshi c Francis b Tredwell            6
R Ramkumar b Tredwell                  43
N P Singh c Francis b Tredwell          4
Sreeshanth c Prior b Napier              4

Extras (b-2, lb-3, nb-5, w-2)          12
Total (all out in 42.3 overs)          174
Did not bat: Sadagopan Ramesh.
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-3, 3-77, 4-78, 5-86, 6-96, 7-166, 8-170, 9-174.
Bowling: Sajid Mahmood 11-1-36-1, Simon Francis 8-1-49-1, Graham Napier 4.3-0-19-1, Simon Jones 9-0-24-2, James Tredwell 10-2-41-4.

England 'A' (2nd innings):
S Newman c Khaleel b Sreeshant          10
E Smith run out                        10
M Lumb b Sreeshant                      0
K Pieterson batting                    65
M Prior batting                          0
Extras (lb-2, nb-1)                      3
Total (for 3 wickets in 32 overs)      88
Fall of wickets: 1-10-, 2-10, 3-85.
Bowling: Sreeshant 10-1-28-2, N P Singh 6-2-11-0, Sunil Joshi 10-1-31-0, R Ramkumar 6-1-16-0.