Last year's finalists Tamil Nadu are almost assured of full four points as Assam, chasing 454 for a win, were tottering at 158 for six in their second innings at close on the penultimate day of their four-day Elite Group B Ranji Trophy match in Chennai on Thruday.

Tamil Nadu, who made 277 for six declared in their second innings were helped by overnight batsmen -- S Suresh and S Badrinath, who put on 117 runs for the third wicket.

Captain Suresh was caught at covers by Raghuram of Kiran Pawar for 73 (8 fours) but Badrinath held on gamely to remain unbeaten with a superb 115, which included 16 hits to the fence. He, then, added 46 runs with Vidyuth Shivramkrishnan (30) for the fourth wicket.

Chasing the mammoth target with a full day to spare tomorrow, Assam wilted under the pressure. Vasanth Saravanan (61 not out) was the only batsman to survive in the face of a disciplined pace and spin attack.
 
Assam openers S Saikia and Parag Das were back in the pavillion with just 35 on board. Kiran Pawar (16) was adjudged leg before to Suresh and three more wickets fell in
quick succession -- spinner Ramkumar dismissing Zakaria Zulfi (16) and R Satish (11) and Tamilkumaran scalping Sukwinder for four.

At close, Gautam Das (8) was giving company to Vasanth Saravanan at the crease.

Tamil Nadu (first innings) 310
Assam (first innings) 134

 Tamil Nadu (second innings)
 S Suresh c Raghuram b Pawar                 73
 D Karthick lbw b Yadav                       0
 S Sriram b Konwar                           22
 S Badrinath not out                        115
 V Sivaramakrishnan c Sukwinder b Raghuram   30
 Ramkumar  c and b Raghuram                   5
 S Viswanathan c Zufri b Raghuram            19
 C Ganapathy not out                         10
 Extras (B-1, W-2)                            3
 Total (for six wkts decl in 74 overs)      277
 Fall of wkts:1/0, 2/49, 3/166, 4/212, 5/218, 6/260
 Bowling: Gautam Dutta 3-1-13-0; R.K.Yadav 10-0-48-1; R
Satish 3-0-8-0; Parag Das 10-4-20-0; Orlan Konwar 11-2-45-1
Raghuram 20-2-85-3; Kiran Pawar 15-1-49-1 Subrajit Saikia
1-0-2-0; Vasanth Saravanan 1-0-6-0.

 Assam (second innings):
 S Sakia c D Karthick b Ganapathy                  21
 Parag Das c D Karthick B Tamil Kumaran            14
 Kiran LBW b S Suresh                              16
 Vasanth Saravanan batting                         61
 Zakaria Zulfi c Sriram b Ramkumar                 16
 R Satish b Ramkumar                               11
 Sukwinder Singh c D Karthick b Tamil Kumaran       4
 Gautam Das batting                                 8
 Extras: (B-1, LB-3, W-2, NB-1)                     7
 Total (for six wkts in 48 overs)                 158
 Fall of wkts: 1/31, 2/35, 3/72, 4/111, 5/135, 6/140
 Bowling: M Srinivas 3-0-6-0; Tamil Kumaran 10.2-2-39-2;
Ramkumar 14-3-41-2; C Ganapathy 8-1-26-1; S Suresh 7-3-23-1,
Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan 5-1-12-0 S Badrinath 0.4-0-7-0.