A fine batting performance by the middle-order batsmen saw East Zone taking a big step towards the Duleep Trophy final on the penultimate day of their match against England 'A' at Amritsar on Sunday.
At stumps on the third day, the English team were 78 for two chasing a target of 367, with Ed Smith unbeaten on 33 with K Pieterson on 29.
Earlier, resuming at their overnight score of 65 for three, East progressed with valuable contributions from all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla (60), Devang Gandhi (59) and skipper Shiv Sunder Das (55) before they were all out for 308.
Das, who came into bat at No.9, had made an unbeaten 124 in the first innings.
Kiran Powar and Sourish Lahiri who made 40 each also made important contributions as East continued their fine comeback after being dismissed for 283 in the first innings.
East began their fightback on Saturday dismissing England 'A' for 225 in their first innings with seamer Shiv Shankar Paul claiming five wickets.
For England, seamer S Mahmood claimed five scalps while off-spinner James Tredwell bagged four wickets to take his match haul to nine.
East, who have two points, need a win to edge out South who have four points.
South Zone, the third team in the group, have four points from their historic win over the tourists while East have two by virtue of their first innings lead over South.
Scoreboard:
East Zone 1st innings: 283
England 'A' 1st innings: 225
East Zone 2nd innings:
D Dasgupta b Mahmood 7
M S Dhoni c Napier b Mahmood 24
A Das c Prior b Kirby 7
K Powar st Prior b Tredwell 40
S Lahiri b Mahmood 40
D Gandhi c Ali b Tredwell 59
L R Shukla c Wagg b Tredwell 60
U Chatterjee b Tredwell 1
S S Das c Kirby b Mahmood 55
D Mohanty c Kirby b Mahmood 0
S S Pal not out 1
Extras (b-2, lb-4, nb-8) 14
Total (all out in 80.1 overs) 308
Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-34, 3-49, 4-112, 5-132, 6-238, 7-249, 8-270, 9-271.
Bowling: Sajid Mahmood 23.1-9-62-5, Steven Kirby 16-5-47-1, Graham Napier 11-1-48-0, James Tredwell 26-1-130-4, G Wegg 4-0-15-0.
England 'A' 2nd innings:
S Newman b Pal 0
E Smith not out 33
M Lumb lbw b Lahiri 13
K Pietersen not out 29
Extras (nb-3) 3
Total (for 2 wickets in 32 overs) 78
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-25.
Bowling: Shiv Shankar Pal 5-2-18-1, Debashish Mohanty 10-4-19-0, Sourishish Lahiri 12-3-33-1, Utpal Chatterjee 5-2-8-0.
