Mohammad Shami, Mukesh Kumar reduce Tilak Varma-led side to 242/6
Chennai: East Zone tighten their grip on the Duleep Trophy final as they restricted South Zone to 242 for six at stumps on the third day here on Tuesday.
South still trail by 466 runs after East piled up a mammoth 708 in their first innings, leaving the defending champions with a mountain to climb.
Skipper Tilak Varma was unbeaten on 56 off 133 balls, with CV Milind yet to open his account at the close. Shreyas Gopal was the last batter dismissed, falling for 26 late in the day.
Veteran pacer Mohammad Shami, operating in short spells in the humid conditions, finished with impressive figures of 2/17 from 11 overs. The 36-year-old maintained a disciplined stump-to-stump line and consistently troubled the batters with his movement.
He first trapped Shaik Rasheed leg before wicket for 29 after the batter and Devdutt Padikkal had added 56 for the third wicket.
Shami returned 20 overs later to remove Ravichandran Smaran, inducing an edge that was held by wicketkeeper Kumar Kushagra after a review.
Padikkal, fresh from his productive tour of Sri Lanka, made a fluent 62 before Mukesh Kumar dismissed him with a mistimed pull to deep mid-wicket.
Tilak and Gopal added 66 in 26.4 overs, but South remain in a precarious position and face a huge task to avoid the follow-on.
