North Zone took a first innings lead of 155 runs after skittling Central Zone out for 288 on the penultimate day of the four-day Duleep Trophy match at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Sunday.

At stumps, North were 72 for 1 with Gautam Gambhir [ Images ] unbeaten on 33 and Ravneet Ricky on 2.

North Zone, having scored 443 runs in their first innings, have a lead of 227 runs with nine wickets in hand.

Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 85 for two, Central Zone's unbeaten pair of T P Singh and Brijesh Tomar could add only seven runs to the total before Test discard Ashish Nehra [ Images ] claimed his first victim in the match, having Singh caught behind for 31.

Central rode on a valuable 73-run eighth wicket partnership between Naman Ojha [ Images ] (67) and Piyush Chawla [ Images ] (21) after Brijesh Tomar and Abbas Ali returned cheaply for 9 and 14 respectively.

Skipper J P Yadav chipped in with 31, studded with five hits to the fence, while Murali Kartik [ Images ] remained unbeaten on 33, which included five fours.

Off-spinner Rajesh Sharma claimed the wickets of Ojha, Chawla and Yadav.

Scorecard

North Zone (1st innings): 443

Central Zone (1st innings):
Amit Pagnis c M Rawat b Joginder Sharma 15
Shivkant Shukla c M Rawat b VRV Singh 24
T P Singh c M Rawat b Ashish Nehra 31
Brijesh Tomar lbw VRV Singh 9
Abbas Ali lbw Ashish Nehra 14
J P Yadav c G Gambhir b Rajesh Sharma 31
Praveen Kumar [ Images ] c V.Kohli b Gagandeep Singh 8
Naman Ojha st M Rawat b Rajesh Sharma 67
Piyush Chawla st M Rawat b Rajesh Sharma 21
Murali Karthik not out 33
Anand Rajan c m Rawat b Ashish Nehra 0
Extras: (b-2, lb-3, w-1, nb-29) 35
Total: (all out off 76.3 overs) 288

Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-43, 3-92, 4-97, 5-114, 6-144, 7-164, 8-237, 9-262.

Bowling: Ashish Nehra 21.3-5-60-3, Gagandeep Singh 12-1-22-1, Joginder Sharma 17-2-47-1, VRV Singh 13-0-96-2, Rajesh Sharma 13-2-58-3.

North Zone ( 2nd innings):
Akash Chopra c N Ojha b Piyush Chawla 29
Gautam Gambhir batting 33
R Ricky batting 2
Extras: (b-4, lb-2, nb-2) 8
Total: (for one wicket off 27 overs) 72

Fall of wickets: 1-60.

Bowling: Praveen Kumar 8-2-16-0, Anand Rajan 13-4-38-0, Piyush Chawla 6-1-12-1.