Prior propped up England A's innings with a half century

Matt Prior's 82 not out and two Sajid Mahmood wickets prevented disaster for England A on day two of their tour match against India's East Zone.

After bowling out the hosts for 283 on day one, Enland's second-string side could only muster 225 in reply.

East Zone then reached 56-3, for an overall lead of 123, before stumps.

Batting at six, Prior's half-century was the only score of note for the home side who were 106-5 before Graham Napier helped Prior add 65.

England A had got off to a bad start with Ed Smith falling to Debasis Mohanty for a duck.

Michael Lumb (33) and Kevin Pietersen (32) then got out just when they appeared ready to play big innings.

East Zone medium-pacer Shiv Sankar Paul had figures of 5-61 in 18.5 overs, removing Lumb and Kadeer Ali for a duck, Scott Newman for 20, and tail-enders Mahmood and Steve Kirby for 12 and nought respectively.

Uptal Chaterjee took 3-55 with his left-arm spin, and broke up England A's highest partnership by claiming the scalp of Napier.

There was more joy for England A with the ball. Former Test opener Deep Dasgupta was bowled by Mahmood for seven after making a first-innings duck, while two further wickets fell in the final session.

East Zone: SS Das, M Dhoni, A Das, D Gupta, K Powar, D Gandhi, L Shukla, U Chatterjee, S Lahiri, D Mohanty, S Paul.