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Aditya Sarwate's unbeaten 66 anchored Kerala's strong reply as the visitors reached 131/3 at stumps on Day 2 of the Ranji Trophy final, after restricting hosts Vidarbha to 379 in the first innings in Nagpur on Thursday.
Doughty Kerala fought all day long to keep the game interestingly poised as they trailed by another 248 runs in the first innings, riding on local star Sarwate's fine knock after their bowlers did not allow Vidarbha to post a huge total in the first essay.
Vidarbha had set sights on a total around 450 after reaching 254/4 on the opening day, but Kerala fought back incredibly well to keep the hosts under 400 which featured a career-best 153 from Danish Malewar and Karun Nair's 86.
Kerala, who had ended the opening day's play with the vital dismissal of Karun Nair (86), remained persistent throughout the first session on the second day as their seamers M D Nidheesh (3/61), Eden Apple Tom (3/102) and NM Basil (2/60) produced a unified show.
Basil snuck one through the gap between Malewar's bat and pads for the first breakthrough, ending the No 4 batter's charge at 153 off 285 balls with 15 fours and three sixes.
But perhaps the biggest breakthroughs of the day came for Kerala when Eden had Vidarbha's red-hot form batter Yash Rathod caught in the slips for a mere three.
Without much pace on the delivery, Eden got the ball to straighten up enough to catch the shoulder of the bat which landed in the hands of the fielder at the first slip.
Vidarbha skipper Akshay Wadkar's (23) resistance did not last long when his charge against Eden's delivery outside off, took an edge and keeper Mohammed Azharuddeen did the rest.
To their credit, Vidarbha's tail consisting Akshay Karnewar (12), Harsh Dubey (12 not out) and Nachiket Bhute (32) did well to drag them as far as 379.
It was imperative for Vidarbha to strike with the new ball and Darshan Nalkande (2/22) provided two early wickets, cleaning up both the Kerala openers Akshay Chandran (14) and Rohan Kunnummal (0) in his first two overs, to reduce Kerala to a precarious 14/2.
But Sarwate, who was once a vital cog in Vidarbha's line-up and was a member of their two-time title winning campaigns in 2017-18 and 2018-19, stood against his former side to lead a strong reply for Kerala.
The 35-year-old Sarwate, who had switched from Vidarbha to Kerala after the last Ranji Trophy season, battled hard to reach 66 not out from 120 balls with 10 fours and remained stoic even as there were challenges along the way.
Sarwate also had luck on his side when Vidarbha did not opt for a caught-behind appeal from skipper Wadkar in the 25th over. The replays showed the ball had brushed Sarwate's gloves.
The left-handed Sarwate put on 93 for the third wicket with Ahammed Imran (37 off 83 balls, 3x4s), who too had a reprieve early on when he was batting on nine.
Bhute's delivery, angling across the left-handed Imran surprised the batter with some bounce as it took the edge and flew towards the first slip. But substitute fielder Atharva Taide, at second slip, went for the catch and spilled it.
If Vidarbha were left to rue their mistakes, they did not fail in breaking the partnership when Yash Thakur (1/45) dismissed Imran late in the day.
Having seen the batter mishit a pull shot, Thakur got another substitute fielder Aman Mokhade at midwicket and lured Imran to play it again. The batter obliged, with another mishit, which resulted in the third success of the innings for Vidarbha.