The West Zone versus England Lions Duleep Trophy group match is poised for an exciting finish with the former taking a huge 139-run first innings lead on the penultimate day of their four-day match at the Motibaug Palace ground here Wednesday.

At close, England Lions, for whom even a draw is enough to make it to the final, were struggling at 14 for one and require 126 runs to avoid the possibility of an innings defeat.

Trailing by 139 runs, England Lions, who began their second essay with Michael Carberry and first innings century-maker skipper Michael Yardy barely 35 minutes before close, suffered a big blow when Yardy was trapped leg before off Siddharth Trivedi for two with just three runs on the board. Carberry and Ed Joyce were at the crease with five runs each.

However, West Zone overnight batsmen — Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane stole the show on Wednesday by notching up 151 (310b, 22x4, 1x6) and 172 (293b, 26x4) runs respectively for a record 342-run second wicket partnership in the Duleep Trophy history.

The duo remained united for 402 minutes before England Lions’ medium-pacer Steve Kirby broke the stand. In the post-lunch session, the duo broke the 20-year-old second wicket partnership record of 288 runs set by West Zone’s Anshuman Gaekwad and Sanjay Manjrekar in the Duleep Trophy match against Central Zone at Nagpur in 1987-88.

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND LIONS (I Innings) 355
West Zone (I Innings, O/n: 187/1):  S Kukreja c Foster b Onions 0, W Jaffer c Foster b Kirby 151, A Rahane lbw Kirby 172, Y Pathan c & b Plunkett 29, P Patel b Panesar 59, C Pujara lbw Rashid 28, R Powar lbw Panesar 5, R Dhurv b Panesar 2, S Jobanputra b Rashid 19, A Makda b Rashid 1, S Trivedi (not out) 0. Extras (B-6, LB-7, W-5, NB-10) 28. Total (all out; 130.5 overs) 494
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-342, 3-365, 4-391, 5-450 , 6-461, 7-465, 8-492 , 9-493, 10-494.
Bowling: G Onions 20-2-81-1, SP Kirby 27-1-83-2, MS Panesar 32-5-106-3, L Plunkett 21-2-87 -1 I Trott 9-2-24-0, A Rashid 18.5-1-88-3, MH Yardy 3-0-12-0.        
ENGLAND LIONS (II Innings): M Carberry (batting) 5, M Yardy lbw Trivedi 2, EC Joyce (batting) 5. Extras (B-1, LB-1) 2.Total (for 1 wkt; 12 overs) 14.
Fall of wickets: 1-3. Bowling: S Trivedi 4-3-1-1, A Makda 3-1-4-0, R Dhurv 3-2-4-0, R Powar 2-0-3-0.