Mahmood was easily the most impressive bowler for England A

A battling partnership between Ed Smith and Kevin Pietersen set up the chance of an intriguing final day in England A's match against India's East Zone.

Set 357 to win, England reached 78-2 at stumps on the third day, recovering from a position of 25-2.

Sajid Mahmood impressed with figures of 5-62 as East Zone were bowled out for 308 on the stroke of tea.

Laxmi Shukla top-scored for East Zone with 60 before he became one of four victims for the spinner James Tredwell.

And there were also runs down the order from Devang Ghandi, who added 59, and former Test star Shiv Sunder Das (55).

A stand of 106 for the sixth wicket took East Zone from a precarious 132-5 to a commanding 238-6 before Tredwell and Mahmood made some late in-roads.

But the tourists were further frustrated by a final-wicket partnership of 37 between Das, batting at nine after hitting 124 as an opener on the first day, and Shiv Sankar Paul, who took 5-61 on Saturday in England's first innings score of 225.

Paul then removed Scott Newman in the first over of England A's second innings, before Michael Lumb fell lbw for 13.

But Smith (33) and Pietersen (29) held firm to give the tourists a chance of victory.

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