A second successive five-wicket burst from lanky pacer V R V Singh pushed holders North Zone to the doorsteps of a 17th title triumph on the third day of their five-day Duleep Trophy final against West Zone on Thursday.
Singh took five for 86 in West’s second innings after his superb first innings haul of five for 91 to help skittle out the hosts for a modest 231 and leave North with a comfortable victory target of 166 in more than two days.
At stumps at the Wankhede stadium here, North had weathered a shaky start  (40 for three) before reaching 74 for three, needing 92 more runs to clinch the title they have won 15 times solely and once jointly.
Left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan, lucky to escape a caught and bowled chance on 27, was unconquered on 44 off 72 balls and giving him company was Yashpal Singh (15).
As in the first essay, Mumbai’s  Ajinkya Rahane was the main prop for West with a responsible innings of 43 in 112 minutes while Yousuf Pathan made a quickfire 61 with 10 fours.

SCORE BOARD

WEST ZONE (I Innings) 274
NORTH ZONE (I Innings) 340
WEST ZONE (II Innings, O/n: 2/0): S Kukreja c Kaul b Singh 4, W Jaffer b Thakur 23, A Rahane lbw Singh 43, P Patel c Goel b Malik 3, C Pujara b Malik 0, Y Pathan c sub (P Dogra) b Mishra 61, R Solanki c Dhawan b Singh 33, R Dhurv c Mishra b Singh 41, S Jobanputra c Goel b Singh 0, A Makda c Goel b Bhatia 0, S Trivedi (not out) 0. Extras (B-2, LB-8, NB-13) 23. Total (all out; 60 overs) 231.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-56, 3-66, 4-70, 5-108, 6-167, 7-222, 8-222, 9-227.
Bowling: VRV Singh 18-0-86-5, V Malik 14-3-62-2,   A Thakur 11-3-21-1, A Mishra 15-2-45-1, R Bhatia 2-0-7-1.
NORTH ZONE (II Innings): A Chopra lbw Trivedi 12, S Dhawan (batting) 44, K Goel c Patel b Makda 1, M Manhas c Jaffer b Trivedi 1, Yashpal Singh (batting) 14. Extras (LB-2) 2.Total (for 3 wkts; 26 overs) 74.
Fall of wickets: 1-28, 2-39, 3-40.
Bowling: S Trivedi 9-4-29-2, S Jobanputra 8-2-25 -0, AM Makda 9-3-18-1.