This was a day on which both teams traded blows, and both ended up surrendering their advantage at some point. Given how well India’s batters have handled spin-friendly conditions recently, a message has already gone out to the curators at the CoE ahead of the Duleep Trophy to roll out turning tracks. Over the three days here, spinners from both sides have enjoyed bowling on this red-soil surface, with turn and bounce causing all sorts of problems.

The 1⃣0⃣0⃣-run stand comes up 🙌

Watch 📽️ snippets of Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and Musheer Khan’s solid partnership so far 💪

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/cATggoXuky#DuleepTrophy pic.twitter.com/y6uWXRjU3k

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) August 25, 2026

Starting Day 3 with a 171-run lead and six wickets in hand, North had the chance to bat West out of the game. Ayush Badoni scored 50 again, his footwork the best on show from either side, but, as in the first innings, he threw it away, going for another slash, this time off offspinner Tanush Kotian, who ended with another four-wicket haul in the match, 4 for 46.

Once Badoni departed, North’s approach changed. With the pitch slowing a little, they ground their way through, Nishant Sindhu’s 44 holding the innings together in the second half. With a few useful contributions around him, they finished on 222, Sams Mulani, who had started the slide at the top of the order, cleaning up the tail to finish with four wickets. Given how West had crumbled against left-arm spinner Abid Mushtaq in the first innings, a target of 287 looked a long way off. When Arshdeep Singh and Anshul Kamboj reduced West to 28 for 2, North had the perfect start, before Musheer, alongside Shivalik Sharma, steadied things.

But it was the 111-run stand between Musheer and captain Gaikwad that brought the game to life. Early on, Musheer used unorthodox methods to counter the seamers, jumping down the track, defending, or simply leaving the ball. Once he read the surface, he began scoring more freely, but it was Gaikwad who injected the real momentum into the chase. From the moment he walked in, he took the attack to the opposition, using his feet and the depth of the crease to make batting look easy on a tough surface. A strike rate of 94.28, 66 off 70, before he was run out, summed up his dominance.

“We have similar wickets in Mumbai. At Azad Maidan we have wickets which are worse than this. I had a mindset that I should stand on the wicket as much as possible. Since we were chasing, I was playing with a positive mindset. Both of us (he and Gaikwad) were backing our own game. It was not a conscious plan to attack. We just focused on the right shots to play. But I’m not regretting missing a century, I’m just regretting not finishing the game,” Musheer said.

Gaikwad’s run-out gave North the opening they’d been chasing. From there, wickets came in a rush, Sindhu removed Musheer, and Mushtaq claimed the twin wickets of Sams Mulani and Mukesh Choudhary off the last ball of the day.

With Urvil Patel, capable of quickfire runs, and Kotian and Thakur still to come, West have reason to believe they can finish this off on Wednesday. It won’t be easy, though.

Brief scores: North Zone 251 & 222 (Ayush Badoni 50, Nishant Sindhu 44; Tanush Kotian 4/46, Sams Mulani 4/78) vs West Zone 187 & 220/7 (Musheer Khan 96, Ruturaj Gaikwad 66). East Zone 467 bt North East Zone 111 & 146 (Pheiroijam Jotin 39; Anukul Roy 5/37).