RAJKOT: West Zone are poised to enter the final on the strength of first innings lead as East were at 289 for seven, trailing by 184 runs with only last three wickets remaining, on the penultimate day of the Duleep Trophy semi-final match.

West Zone (1st innings): 473.

East Zone (1st innings): SS Das lbw Arothe 45, N Haldipur batting 115, R Kumar run out 18, Tariq-ul-Rehman c Paranjape b Mhambrey 49, S Raul lbw Mhambrey 2, I Khan b Arothe 0, R Morris lbw N Kulkarni 13, U Chatterjee lbw siddique 5, V Sawant batting 28. Extras (b8, lb2, nb2, w2): 14. Total (for seven wickets): 289.

Fall of wickets: 1-64, 2-100, 3-211, 4-222, 5-223, 6-247, 7-257.Bowling: Mhambrey 24-9-42-2, Siddique 24-5-90-1, Kulkarni 36-18-50-1, Arothe 29-11-38-2, Bahutule 24-4-54-0, Kotak 3-2-5-0.

North fight back against Central

VALSAD: North Zone fought back by setting Central Zone a target of 235 and then claimed two wickets on the penultimate day of Duleep Trophy semi-final match.

NorthZone (1st innings): 113.

Central Zone (1st innings): 346-9 decl

North Zone (2nd innings): A Dani c Yadav b Zaidi 26, V Rathore c Gandhe b Kartik 50, R Nayyar c Kartik b Gandhe 91, P Dharmani c Mugdal b Bangar 18, V Sehwag c Bangar b Kartik 66, D Mongia c Shukla b Kartik 13, V Dahiya c Yadav b Kartik 92, P Jain c Kamal b Zaidi 54, Harvinder Singh lbw Gandhe 1, V Jain c Ghare b Zaidi 14, A Mehra not out 0. Extras (b20, lb7, nb15): 42. Total (all out) 467.

Fall of wickets: 1-49, 2-115, 3-146, 4-227, 5-241, 6-375, 7-425, 8-427, 9-462.

Bowling: Kamal 25-6-62-0, Zaidi 33.1-6-86-3, Bangar 21-3-70-1, Kartik 50-11-133-4, Gandhe 30-6-83-2, Kaif 1-0-1-0, Bundela 2-0-5-0.

Central Zone (2nd innings): S Bangar lbw Mehra 0, J Yadav c Dharmani b Mehra 5, Y Ghare batting 8, M Kaif batting 21. Extras (b4, lb4, w6): 14. Total (for two wickets) 48.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-17.

Bowling: Mehra 8-2-18-2, Jain 7-3-17-0, Jain 3-1-2-0, Sehwag 1-0-3-0.

Saheli defeats Arthie to take lead

CHENNAI: Overnight leaderArthie Ramaswamy (6.5) lost to Saheli Barua (7) in the eighth round of the 25th National Women `B' Chess Championship.Results: R Aarthie 6.5 lost to Saheli Barua 7; DC Bose 6.5 bt S Meenakshi 6; Anupama Gokhale 6 bt Safira Shanaz 5.5; E Sheena 5.5 drew with Saritha Reddy 5.5; Swati Mohota 6 bt MR Sangeetha 5; Neha Singh 5 lost to Bindu Sarita 6; Koneru Humpy 5.5 bt Kiran Agarwal 4.5; Saimeera Ravi 4.5 lost to Arpi Shah 5.5; PS Sivakami 5 drew with Ch Kavitha 5; Mrunalini Kunte 5 bt V Aishwarya 4.5; Sushima Singh 4 lost to A Pachapurkar 5.

Nugent, Gautam win singles title

CALCUTTA: The singles finals of the International Tennis Federation junior meet went according to the script at the DKS courts, with the boys second seed Stephen Nugent and girls top seed Gautam Sheethal winning . Ireland's Nugent defeated third seed Ravi Kant Bhatt 6-3, 6-3. Sheethal won 6-1, 6-3 win over Sonal Phadke.