Chasing Western's 132, Tatas who were overnight 145 for three, slipped to 190 for six with the dismissals of Ajit Agarkar (48) and skipper Lalchand Rajput (44). Left-handers Powar and Dahad then began the counter-attack and Western were fighting a hopeless battle as Tatas surged to a 189-run lead. Western were 57 for three in their second knock.

The other tie in this group A, saw Air-India reach 140 for five in reply to defending champions Elf Lubricants' 342, inclusive of a whopping 56 over-rate penalty runs. In fact, a tactical ploy by the Elf think-tank saw them declaring the innings at 286-8 knowing fully well of the over-rate penalty. Skipper Jatin Paranjpe had scored a 52 on Saturday was matched by bowler MazharGhadially, whose unbeaten 52 not out frustrated Air-India who had Elf 201 for six at one stage. Air-India's off-spinner from Vidarbha Preetam Gandhe, who bowled a teasing line claimed five for 91.

In Group `B', Central Railway did better than stronger opponents Indian Oil for the second day running scoring 351 and then claiming eight opposition wickets for 220. Sarvesh Bhatnagar's 141 and an all-round show by the Agra-based Dinesh Panwar shared the honours. Panwar first scored 36 (3x4, 1x6) as Central, overnight 292 for six, added another 59 runs. Panwar then opened the attack and claimed three of the eight wickets to fall.

At their home ground promoted Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers were fighting to avoid an innings defeat at the hands of Sun-Grace Mafatlal. Sun-Grace, chasing RCF's 118, made 269 for a lead of 151, which was whittled down by 62 by the RCF openers Suhas Mayekar (batting 32) and Sachin Kakdekar (batting 21) in the second innings.

Sun-Grace's overnight opener Praful Dhule made thetop score of 98. Veteran Vivek Naravne bowled with some fire of old in spells to claim three wickets, while left-arm spinner Nitin Sawant had the wickets of Vinod Kambli, Nayan Mongia and Iqbal Khan in addition to the one of opener Amit Pagnis the previous day.

Brief Scores

Group A: Elf Lubricants 342-8 decl inclusive of 56 penalty runs (Amol Rane 26, Maroof Khan 35, Amol Muzumdar 36, Mazhar Ghadially 52 n.o; Bhupinder Singh 2-44, Preetam Gandhe 5-91) vs Air-India 140-5 (Kamal Chopra 57, Sanjay Manjrekar 37, Abey Kuruvilla 3-35).

Western Railway 132 & 57-3 vs Tata Sports Club 371-9 decl (Lalchand Rajput 44, Ajit Agarkar 48, Nishit Shetty 64, Kiran Powar 95, Sandip Dahad 63, Ifran Pathan 4-99).

Group B: Central Railway 351 (Sarvesh Bhatnagar 141, Dinesh Panwar 36, Amit Dani 3-62, Manish Patel 2-78, Iqbal Siddiqui 2-78, Hemant Kinikar 2-24) vs Indian Oil 220-8 (Abbas Ali 48, Mayur Kadrekar 34, Mandar Phadke 31, Iqbal Siddiqui 38, Rajesh Gurav batting 28, Dinesh Panwar 3-79).

RCF 118 & 62-0(Suhas Mayekar batting 32, Sachin Kakdekar batting 21) vs Sun-Grace Mafatlal 269 (Praful Dhule 98, Nitin Sawant 4-68, Vivek Naravne 3-47, Vivek Deshmukh 2-23).