North Zone took a first innings lead of 155 runs after skittling Central Zone out for 288 on the penultimate day of the four-day Duleep Trophy match at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Sunday.
At stumps, North were 72 for 1 with Gautam Gambhir unbeaten on 33 and Ravneet Ricky on 2.
North Zone, having scored 443 runs in their first innings, have a lead of 227 runs with nine wickets in hand.
Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 85 for two, Central Zone's unbeaten pair of T P Singh and Brijesh Tomar could add only seven runs to the total before Test discard Ashish Nehra claimed his first victim in the match, having Singh caught behind for 31.
Central rode on a valuable 73-run eighth wicket partnership between Naman Ojha (67) and Piyush Chawla (21) after Brijesh Tomar and Abbas Ali returned cheaply for 9 and 14 respectively.
Skipper J P Yadav chipped in with 31, studded with five hits to the fence, while Murali Kartik remained unbeaten on 33, which included five fours.
Off-spinner Rajesh Sharma claimed the wickets of Ojha, Chawla and Yadav.
Scorecard
North Zone (1st innings): 443
Central Zone (1st innings):
Amit Pagnis c M Rawat b Joginder Sharma 15
Shivkant Shukla c M Rawat b VRV Singh 24
T P Singh c M Rawat b Ashish Nehra 31
Brijesh Tomar lbw VRV Singh 9
Abbas Ali lbw Ashish Nehra 14
J P Yadav c G Gambhir b Rajesh Sharma 31
Praveen Kumar c V.Kohli b Gagandeep Singh 8
Naman Ojha st M Rawat b Rajesh Sharma 67
Piyush Chawla st M Rawat b Rajesh Sharma 21
Murali Karthik not out 33
Anand Rajan c m Rawat b Ashish Nehra 0
Extras: (b-2, lb-3, w-1, nb-29) 35
Total: (all out off 76.3 overs) 288
Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-43, 3-92, 4-97, 5-114, 6-144, 7-164, 8-237, 9-262.
Bowling: Ashish Nehra 21.3-5-60-3, Gagandeep Singh 12-1-22-1, Joginder Sharma 17-2-47-1, VRV Singh 13-0-96-2, Rajesh Sharma 13-2-58-3.
North Zone ( 2nd innings):
Akash Chopra c N Ojha b Piyush Chawla 29
Gautam Gambhir batting 33
R Ricky batting 2
Extras: (b-4, lb-2, nb-2) 8
Total: (for one wicket off 27 overs) 72
Fall of wickets: 1-60.
Bowling: Praveen Kumar 8-2-16-0, Anand Rajan 13-4-38-0, Piyush Chawla 6-1-12-1.
