Maharashtra 394 for 5 (Gugale 154, Khurana 125, Bawne 47*) trail Tamil Nadu 549 by 155 runs
Scorecard

Swapnil Gugale and Chirag Khurana scored hundreds to keep Maharashtra's pursuit of the first-innings lead on track, but Tamil Nadu pulled things back with a few late strikes to put the game in the balance.

Maharashtra didn't lose a wicket in the first session, Gugale and Khurana raising 270 runs overall before Gugale, who faced 282 balls and hit 28 fours, was removed by B Aparajith in the 52nd over of the day. Both batsmen scored at a reasonable pace, managing strike-rates of 50-plus each.

Gugale's dismissal gave Tamil Nadu an opening, seamer A Aswin Crist landing two blows in fairly quick succession. Rahul Tripathi was caught in front by Crist exactly five overs after Gugale was out. Crist struck again after 10 overs to have Khurana caught behind.

At 330 for 4, Ankit Bawne and Kedar Jadhav proceeded to knit together a 45-run stand. Jadhav, who had raced away to 26 off 25 deliveries, was removed by Malolan Rangarajan. Bawne and captain Rohit Motwani, who faced 31 balls for his four runs, downed the shutters.

Khurana said later that the wicket, while having slowed down, wasn't unplayable. "It's not that difficult. Both the batsmen at the crease [Bawne and Motwani] are determined to take us through," Khurana told ESPNcricinfo. "They [Tamil Nadu] will come hard at us in the morning, so we need to be patient and not lose wickets in the first session. If we bat out the whole day, we will win. Today, Swapnil and me wanted to bat out the morning session without giving away a wicket. That gave the team a lot of confidence."