Rest of India were comfortably placed at 45 without loss at the end of the second day's play in the Irani Trophy match after being set a victory target of 114 by Uttar Pradesh.
Captain Wasim Jaffer (25) and Gautam Gambhir (18) were at the crease when stumps were drawn in Nagpur, on Tuesday.
Rest of India need 69 more runs for victory with 10 wickets in hand.
Earlier, Uttar Pradesh were bundled out for 166 in 50.1 overs in the second innings, ending up a mere 113 runs ahead.
Skipper Jyoti Yadav (38), Shivkant Shukla (33) and Gyanendra Pande (32) salvaged some prestige with fighting knocks as six Uttar Pradesh batsmen failed to reach double digits, three going back without scoring.
V R V Singh inflicted the most damage on UP, capturing four wickets for 40 runs. Zaheer Khan and L Balaji scalped two wickets each.
UP had to toil in the morning to wrap the Rest of India first innings; they needed 90 minutes to send the three remaining batsmen back after Rest added 70 to their overnight score of 131 for seven.
S Badrinath had an excellent outing, remaining unbeaten with 80 runs to his credit, inclusive 16 hits to the fence. He completed his 50 off 77 balls, inclusive of 10 boundaries.
Scorecard
Rest of India (1st innings): (Overnight 131 for 7):
Wasim Jaffer c Shukla b Praveen Kumar 45
Gautam Gambhir b Praveen Kumar 20
Robin Uttappa c Shukla b Srivastava 8
Venugopal Rao c Amir Khan b Srivastava 0
Dinesh Karthik c Shukla b Praveen Kumar 11
S Badrinath not out 80
Murli Karthik run out 5
Zaheer Khan b Srivastava 1
L Balaji c Rizwan b Shalabh Srivastava 15
V R V Singh b Shalabh Srivastava 0
Pragyan Ojha c Shivkant Shukla b Avinash Yadav 3
Extras: (4 b, 1 lb, 8 nb) 13
Total: (all out in 262 minutes) 53.3 overs 201
Fall of wickets: 8-155, 9-155, 10-201
Bowling: Ashish Zaidi 8-1-36-0, Shalabh Srivastava 20.3-4-74-5, Praveen Kumar 17-4-64-3, Avinash Yadav: 8-2-22-1
Uttar Pradesh (2nd innings):
Praveen Kumar c M Kartik b Zaheer Khan 0
Shivkant Shukla c Jaffer b Balaji 33
Tanmay Srivastava run out (Gautam Gambhir) 0
Ravikant Shukla c D Karthik b Khan 8
R Shamshad c D Karthik b Singh 10
Jyoti Yadav c Uthappa b Singh 38
Gyanendra Pande c Khan b M Kartik 32
Amir Khan c M Kartik b Balaji 26
Avinash Yadav c D Karthik b Singh 0
Shalabh Srivastava not out 5
Ashish Zaidi b Singh 1
Extras: (1 b, 4 lb, 6 nb, 2 w) 13
Total: (all out in 50.1 overs) 166
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-4, 3-39, 4-54, 5-55, 6-90, 7-145, 8-159, 9-159, 10-166
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 12-4-34-2, L Balaji 13-3-46-2, V R V Singh 14.1-3-40-4, M Kartik 8-1-38-1, P Ojha: 3-1-6-0.
Rest of India (2nd innings):
Wasim Jaffer batting 25
Gautam Gambhir batting 18
Extras: (2 lb) 2
Total: (for no loss in 8 overs) 45
Bowling: Shalab Srivastava 4-0-25-0, Praveen Kumar 4-1-18-0.
