North Zone's highly rated batsmen failed to live up to the expectations as the side suffered a dramatic collapse to concede the first innings lead to West Zone in the Duleep Trophy match in Lucknow on Wednesday.
North, who were sitting pretty at 113 for two after dismissing their rivals for 201 overnight, began cautiously in the morning session before being bowled out for 196 with spinners Rajesh Pawar and Romesh Powar doing the maximum damage.
North, who were 151 for three at one stage, lost their last seven wickets for just 45 runs at the K D Singh Babu Stadium.
West, in their second innings, were 146 for five at close of play on the second day.
Earlier, North resumed at the overnight score of 114 for two but soon crumbled to West's double spin attack of Ramesh Powar and Rajesh Pawar, who claimed four wickets each.
First to depart was Aakash Chopra, who managed to add just one more run to his overnight score of 44, edging a catch to wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel off Zaheer Khan.
Yuvraj Singh (21) did not last long and was smartly stumped by Parthiv off Powar. Ravneet Ricky followed soon after making 33.
Dinesh Mongia (2) also disappointed when he was caught by Wasim Jaffar off Powar.
The last six batsmen added only 45 runs as North was bundled out soon after the lunch break.
West began their second innings on a confident note through openers Satyajit Parab and Wasim Jaffar before Parab (14) fell leg before to part-time bowler Dinesh Mongia.
Jaffer, meanwhile, exhibited some classic shots and made 47 runs from 93 balls with the help of seven fours before being caught by Aakash Chopra off Gagandeep Singh.
Next to depart was Dheeraj Jadhav (31) when he failed to read an incoming delivery of Amit Mishra and was caught plumb in front.
Parthiv Patel (1) did little to impress the national selectors with his batting prowess and was out to a brilliant catch by Yuvraj when the ball popped up after hitting the wicketkeeper's gloves.
At close of play, Kiran Pawar was unbeaten on 17 with Rajesh Pawar on 15.
Scoreboard:
West Zone first innings: 201
North Zone first innings: (overnight 114 for 2)
G Gambhir b Zaheer 13
V Sehwag c Parthiv b Pawar 33
A Chopra c Parthiv b Zaheer 45
R Ricky lbw b Powar 33
Yuvraj Singh st Parthiv b Powar 21
D Mongia c Jaffar b Powar 2
M S Bisla b Powar 0
A Mishra b Pawar 18
A Nehra b Pawar 10
Gagandeep Singh c Jaffar b Pawar 0
V Bhatia not out 8
Extras (b-1, lb-6, nb-6) 13
Total (all out, 61.4 overs) 196
Fall of wickets: 1/17, 2/74, 3/115, 4/151, 5/156, 6/156, 7/163, 8/183, 9/194.
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 19-3-64-2, Rakesh Patel 4-0-42-0, Rajesh Pawar 11.4-2-30-4, Ramesh Powar 23-8-40-4, Siddharth Trivedi 4-0-13-0.
West Zone second innings:
S Parab lbw b Mongia 14
W Jaffar c Chopra b Gagandeep 47
D Jadhav lbw b Mishra 31
N Patel c Chopra b Bhatia 17
Parthiv Patel c Yuvraj b Bhatia 1
Kiran Pawar not out 19
Rajesh Pawar not out 15
Extras (nb-2) 2
Total (for 5 wickets in 51 overs) 146
Fall of wickets: 1/22, 2/78, 3/96, 4/120, 5/127
Bowling: Ashish Nehra 9-1-25-0, Gagandeep Singh 9-3-17-1, Vishal Bhatia 9-1-41-2, Amit Mishra 14-2-34-1, Dinesh Mongia 4-2-9-1, Virendra Sehwag 6-0-20-0.
