South Zone are in danger of conceding the first innings to East Zone in the Duleep Trophy match in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh.
At close on day three, on Monday, they were 304 for 8, still 84 behind East's first innings total.
Resuming the day on 93 for 3, in response to East Zone's 388 all out, the South Zone top order batsmen failed to apply themselves, leaving the team in a precarious position at 159 for 6. But S Sharath (48) and left arm spinner Sunil Joshi (51) put up a valuable 90-run partnership for the seventh wicket to not only steady the ship but also bring the team nearer to the East Zone total.
R Ramkumar (19 not out) and N P Singh (29 not out) were at the crease at draw of stumps.
Earlier, Sourishish Lahiri gave an early jolt to the South Zone innings, sending back wicket-keeper batsman MSK Prasad after he had added just four runs to his overnight tally.
Venugopalrao, who looked confident at the crease during his 41-run knock, gave a simple return catch to Lahiri as South Zone struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking.
Sharath and Joshi then got into the act but both got out within a span of nine runs as the team slumped to 258 for eight from 249 for six.
But Ramkumar and Singh put up stiff resistance to deny further success to the East Zone bowlers.
S S Paul, Lahiri and Debashish Mohanty took two wickets each while left arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee picked one scalp.
Scoreboard
East Zone (Ist innings): 388
South Zone (Ist innings):
R Barrington c R Kumar b Mohanty 15
S Ramesh c Mohanty b Paul 57
S Sriram run out 2
Y Venugopalarao c and b S Lahiri 41
M S K Prasad c Shukla b S Lahiri 6
S Sharath c Mohanty b Paul 48
S Badrinath lbw Chatterjee 9
S Joshi c Sub b Mohanty 51
R Ramkumar batting 19
N P Singh batting 29
Extras: 27
Total: (for eight wkts, 125 overs) 304
Fall of wickets: 1-52, 2-56, 3-90, 4-119, 5-130, 6-159, 7-249, 8-258
Bowling: S S Paul 34-11-72-2, D Mohanty 20-5-49-2, S Lahiri 30-11-61-2, U Chatterjee 33-6-81-1, R Gavaskar 7-1-24-0, L R Shukla 1-0-1-0.
