Pietersen flayed South Zone's bowling for a second time

Kevin Pietersen looked a class apart as England A stamped their authority on their tour game against India's South Zone.

The batsman raced to an unbeaten 65 as the tourists reached 88-3 in their second innings, a lead of 291 runs.

James Tredwell earlier picked up 4-41 to reduce South Zone to 174-9, with Sadagoppan Ramesh unable to bat.

And Graham Napier struck 76 as England A, who began the day 308-7, reached 377 in their first innings.

Napier was given good support by Simon Jones (23) as the pair put on 56 for the ninth wicket to set the tone for the day.

Sajid Mahmood and Simon Francis struck early to leave South Zone reeling in their reply.

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But Yalaka Venugopal Rao (58no) and Sridharan Sriram (44) put on 74 for South Zone's third wicket before Tredwell struck his first blow, bowling Sriram.

The off-spinner and Jones (2-24) then rolled through South Zone's batting line-up to give England A a first innings advantage of 203.

The tourists struggled in their second innings with Michael Lumb and Scott Newman falling cheaply.

But Pietersen flayed the home side's bowling for the second time, following his 104 in the first innings, to put England A firmly in the driving seat.

Jones is expected to leave the tour after this match, to prepare for the senior tour of the West Indies.

Yorkshire's Steve Kirby, who is already in India attending a pace-bowling clinic, has been called up as a replacement.

South Zone: S Ramesh (capt), I Khaleel (wkt), Y Venugopal Rao, S B Joshi, S Sriram, N P Singh, B M Rowland, S Sharath, R Ramkumar, S Santh, S Badrinath.