Powered by Sathiamoorty Saravanan's 79 off just 73 balls, East Zone galloped to a nine-wicket win in pursuit of 128 against North at Rajkot.
After Sourav Ganguly's marvellous 117 gave East a 113-run lead in the first innings, North needed a special innings by one of their batsmen to pull them out of the woods. Resuming on 106 for 3 on the third day, only Ravneet Ricky (56) went past fifty as North crumbled to 169 for 8 before VRV Singh (47) and Amit Mishra (36 not out) took them to 240. Shib Paul rattled the top order taking 4 for 67.
West Zone, 37 for 2 at stumps, require a further 67 runs for victory against South Zone at Vadodara, as Zaheer Khan (6 for 56) struck telling blows to bowl them out for just 211.
Resuming the day's play at 314 for 8, West were dismissed for 327 as Syed Sahabuddin (3 for 75) dismissed the tail within the first five overs. South began its second innings on a bad note as Zaheer quickly accounted for Swapnil Asnodkar and Sridharan Sriram. VVS Laxman, the South captain, made a patient 69, but apart from Robin Uthappa (52) and Hemang Badani (47 not out), no other batsman rose to the occasion, and South found itself dismissed for eight runs less than the first time they batted. Ramesh Powar added to his first innings' four wickets with three vital wickets in the middle order.