North Zone scored 504 in the first innings and also picked two East Zone wickets to put themselves in the driver's seat in the Group 'B' Duleep Trophy match at the Nehru stadium in Guwahati on Sunday.
In reply to North Zone's huge total, built around Joginder Sharma's 122, East Zone were tottering at 22 for 2 at close on the second day of the match.
The disastrous start saw East lose Subhomoy Das in the second over and Shib Sundar Das in the next.
Skipper Sourav Ganguly, on 10, and Abhisekh Jhunjhunwala (6) were at the crease when play was called off 15 minutes before the scheduled close due to bad light.
Earlier, resuming at their overnight score of 252 for 4, North Zone made a heady start adding 46 quick runs before Yashpal Singh was caught by Deep Dasgupta off Debashis Mohanty. Yashpal scored an impressive 89, including 11 fours and two sixes.
Rawat was joined by Sharma, whose second consecutive century in a Duleep Trophy match was the highlight of the day.
Their sixth wicket partnership of 106 runs helped considerably in consolidating North Zone's innings.
Sharma, who had scored a century in the last Duleep Trophy match against Central Zone at Jamshedpur, was at the crease for 180 minutes and faced 166 balls in his score 122, which included 18 fours and three sixes.
Rawat gave excellent support from the other end, scoring a responsible 62 before he was caught and bowled by Abhisekh Jhunjhunwala.
He was followed by Gagandeep Singh, who added 18 runs, which included two fours but after Sharma's wicket fell at 481, the tail-enders could do precious little.
Scorecard
North Zone (1st Innings):
Akash Chopra lbw D Mohanty 12
Gautam Gambhir c D Dasgupta b S Lahiri 86
Ravneet Ricky c D Mohanty b Lahiri 29
Mithun Minhas c L R Shukla b Lahiri 21
Yashpal Singh c D Dasgupta b D Mohanty 89
Mahesh Rawat c and b A Jhunjhunwala 62
Joginder Sharma c and b Shivsagar Singh 122
Ashish Nehra not out 23
Rajesh Sharma c Ganguly b Shivsagar Singh 2
Vishal Bhatia b Ashok Dinda 2
Extras: (lb-7; b-9; nb-22) 38
Total: (all out in 143.5 overs) 486
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-81, 3-116, 4-212, 5-298, 6-404, 7-747, 8-481, 9-499.
Bowling: Ashok Dinda 35.5-3-126-1, Debashis Mohanty 19-4-44-2, Sourav Ganguly 9-0-15-0, Sourashish Lahiri 43-5-152-3, Sibsagar Singh 27-2-103-2,Rohan Gavaskar 6-0-31-1, Abhisekh Jhunjhunwala 4-1-17-1.
East Zone (1st innings):
Subhomoy Das c Gambhir b Gagandeep Singh 1
Shib Sundar Das b Ashish Nehra 4
Abhisekh Jhunjhunwala batting 6
Sourav Ganguly batting 10
Extras: (NB-1) 1
Total: (for two wickets in 6.5 overs) 22
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-5
Bowling: Ashish Nehra 5.5-0-9-1, Gagandeep Singh 1-2-13-1.
