CHENNAI: Half-centuries from skipper Ishan Kishan and Shikhar Mohan solidified East Zone's grip on the Duleep Trophy as the final at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium drifted decisively in their favour. East Zone finished day four at 212/5, holding a lead of 584 runs over South Zone, who had been bowled out for 336 earlier in the morning.

Kishan, who ended the match with a tally of 350 runs, missed a second century of the final by 20 runs — just a day after Tilak Varma had missed his own hundred by a solitary run in the same session.

Tilak's lonely vigil ends at 99

South Zone did their bit on the fourth morning by adding 94 runs for their last four wickets, with CV Milind offering strong resistance. Tilak kickstarted the day with a couple of boundaries off Mohammed Shami in the very first over, even though South Zone had just taken the new ball. At the other end, Milind got going with a neat cover drive against Mukesh Kumar.

East Zone's spinners finally prised the stand open with the wicket of Milind. Tripurana Vijay was then run out when Tilak attempted to keep the strike, and a decision to take a single off just the second ball of an over exposed Mohammad Siraj to Mukesh Kumar, who duly removed him leg-before-wicket. In frustrating fashion, Tilak ended up missing a well-deserved century after he mistimed one back.

Kishan and Mohan push the lead past 500

Onexpected lines, East Zone declined to enforce the follow-on despite a first markup of 372 runs — a decision that gave the Chennai crowd a chance to watch teenage opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi again. Some walked away just five overs later as Tripurana Vijay saw him skip down the pitch and stumped him for 8, three balls after Abhimanyu Easwaran had edged Siraj to first slip.

There was, however, no real danger for East even with those early blows, as Kishan and Mohan set about steadying the ship. With the lead past 400, Kishan handed Vijay six over in the deep and Mohan followed up with a boundary down the ground off Shreyas Gopal. After tea, Kishan switched gears further to entertain the early crowd, and after bringing up his fifty he tore into Vijay going 4, 6, 6, 4 in one over.

MD Nidheesh and Gopal, however, dried up the runs over the next few overs, and Kishan miscued a shot — missing the century and his own chance to run away. Post his departure, Mohan was trapped lbw and Sudip Gharami fell early — run out — but Kumar Kushagra and Md Koundain Quraishi batted out the remaining overs, registering a half-century partnership.

Shami and Mukesh give a timely reminder

Day three had belonged to the two Bengalians fasts — Shami and Mukesh Kumar — who may find themselves outside India's red-ball set-up but made the flat Chepauk pitch, carefully opted and swung reverse swing. Shami returned 2-41 in eleven overs, removing a set Shardal and Smaran Ravichandran, while Mukesh finished with 2-36 from twelve overs and picked up Ricky Bhui and Devdutt Padikkal (62).

"After roughly 20 overs, there was a little bit of movement - reverse and otherwise. We benefited from that, so we were able to pick up wickets quickly," Mukesh said at the end of the match.

"It is very hot here right now, and the list is flat. So, five or six-over spells would not really work here... The plan as a team was to bowl in short bursts. We put in maximum effort into every ball and that worked well," he added.

An injury to left-arm spinner Anukul Roy forced the East Zone to turn to part-time spin, and the unplanned time was perfect: Shantar Mohan claimed his maiden first-class wicket when N Jagadeesan (32) sliced a delivery to Abhimanyu Easwaran at the cover.

Brief scoreline: East Zone 708 & 212/5 (Ishan Kishan 80, Shikhar Mohani 52) lead South Zone 336 (Tilak Varma 99; Mukesh Kumar 3-62) by 584 runs. The match moves to its final day.