East Zone finished the second day of their Duleep Trophy match against West Zone at the CCI at 128 for three.
Manoj Tiwary (12 not out) and Saurabh Tiwary (8 not out) were at the crease at stumps.
Skipper Shiv Sunder Das (56) and his deputy Rashmi Ranjan Parida (47) put on 96 runs for the second wicket before losing their wickets in quick succession.
Going into day three East lead West by a slender margin of 17 runs with seven second innings wickets intact.
Earlier, East fought back well this morning by sending back settled batsmen Thaker and Pujara after West commenced their first innings at 102 for two.
Pujara was dismissed off the third ball he faced, caught behind when he edged a late out-swinger from Dinda who then ran out Thaker to leave West tottering at 107 for four.
The dismissal of Parthiv Patel for five left West at a sorry 108 for five before Nayar and Jadhav halted East's progress with attacking play.
Nayar, after striking Bose for four successive fours in one over, was dismissed by left-arm spinner Anand Katti whom he had carted for a six earlier on. His innings contained eight fours too.
Jadhav did not last too long after his sixth wicket partner's departure. He was caught behind off Bose, hitting nine fours in 43 balls, to leave West at 204 for seven.
But East's hopes of slicing through the tail were dashed by Pawar who struck eight fours and a six in his 82-ball knock.
He added 54 runs for the eighth wicket with Dhawal Kulkarni (14) and 24 for the next wicket with Sidharth Trivedi (8 not out) before edging Dinda to wicket keeper Wriddhiman Saha. Dinda sent back last man Samad Fallah for a duck to end the innings 51 minutes after lunch.
Kulkarni accounted for Chakrabarty cheaply in the East second innings before Das and Parida carried the score past 100.
Pawar trapped Das leg before as he shuffled to turn the slow bowler to leg while Kulkarni trapped Parida leg before with a sharp incoming ball to give West the upper hand.