With just one day’s play remaining at the Madhav Rao Scindia stadium, East Zone require a mammoth 649 more to win and progress to the finals.

Resuming at their overnight score of  109 for two, Chopra and Manhas shared an unbroken 368 for the third-wicket. Manhas needed just 255 balls for his breezy 205 that was laced with 27 fours and two sixes. Chopra, who made 205, was a touch more sedate consuming 301 balls in his knock that had 21 hits to the fence.

East were 28 for one when stumps were drawn on the penultimate day.

SCORE BOARD

NORTH ZONE (I Innings) 360
EAST ZONE (I Innings) 143
NORTH ZONE (II Innings; O/n: 109/2): S Dhawan lbw Mohanty 4, A Chopra (not out) 205, K Goel c H Das b Bose 34, M Manhas (not out) 205. Extras (B-5, LB-1, W-1, NB-4) 11.  Total (for 2 wkts decl; 103.5 overs) 459
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-91.
Bowling: D Mohanty 12-1-41-1, R Bose 15-3-57-1, T Saha 43.5-2-192-0, S Paul 17-5-71-0, A Majumdar 14-0-74-0, M Vardhan 2-0-18-0.
EAST ZONE (II Innings): SS Das (batting)18, WP Saha b Bhatia 2, Arindam Das (bating) 2. Extras (NB-6) 6. Total (for 1 wkt; 12 overs) 28
Fall of wickets: 1-15. Bowling: V Malik 4-0-20-0, R Bhatia 5-4-2-1, C Nanda 1-0-3-0, A Mishra 2-0-3-0.