Central Zone were struggling at 85 for 2 in reply to North Zone's mammoth score of 443 on the second day of the four-day Duleep Trophy match at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Saturday.

T P Singh was batting on 26, inclusive of two fours, and Brijesh Tomar on 13 when play was called off 34 minutes before the scheduled close due to bad light.

Play ended 13 overs short of the mandatory 90 overs.

The star-studded North Zone attack, led by former India left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra, maintained superb line and length right from the start and did not allow openers Amit Pagnis and Shivkant Shukla to settle down.

Central Zone, who were 41 for no loss at the tea break, suffered a setback in the very first over post-tea when medium pacer Joginder Sharma had Pagnis caught behind off Mahesh Rawat for 15.

Former Indian seamer V R V Singh, struggling to get a recall to the Indian team for the forthcoming South Africa series, struck one over later having Shukla (24) caught behind the stumps.

The opening partnership between Pagnis and Shukla fetched 43 runs.

Singh, who walked in following Pagnis dismissal, and Tomar played a cautious knock taking to the total to 85 without further loss.

Nehra, who was playing the four-day tournament after a gap of 17 months following an injury, returned impressive figures of 9-2-19-0.

Scorecard

North Zone (1st innings):
Akash Chopra lbw P Kumar 1
Gautam Gambhir [Images] c Brajesh Tomar b J P Yadav 70
Ravneet Ricky c Brajesh Tomar b Anand Rajan 20
Yashpal Singh bowled J P Yadav 74
Mithun Manhas b Piyush Chawla [Images] 2
Mahesh Rawat c T P Singh b Murali Karthik 115
Joginder Sharma lbw M Karthik 103
Ashish Nehra lbw M Karthik 0
Gagandeep Singh not out 21
V R V Singh b Piyush Chawla 12
Rajesh Sharma lbw Piyush Chawla 0
Extras: (b-5, lb-10, nb-10) 25
Total: (all out in 141 overs) 443

Fall of wickets: 2-1, 58-2, 125-3, 132-4, 211-5, 383-6, 385-7, 422-8, 443-9, 443-10.

Bowling: Praveen Kumar 28-7-99-1, J P Yadav, 31-13-62-2, Anand Rajan 13-1-58-1, Piyush Chawla 35-9-106-3, Murali Karthik 34-5-103-3.

Central Zone (1st innings):
Amit Pagnis c M Rawat b Joginder Sharma 15
Shivkant Shukla c M Rawat b VRV Singh 24
T P Singh batting 26
Brijesh Tomar batting 7
Extras: (b-1, lb-2, nb-10) 13
Total: (for two wickets off 26 overs) 85

Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-43

Bowling: Ashish Nehra 9-2-19-0, Gagandeep Singh 6-0-15-0, Joginder Sharma 7-0-20-1, VRV Singh 4-0-28-1.