Vidarbha 379 and 249 for 4 (Nair 132*, Malewar 73) lead Kerala 342 (Baby 98, Sarwate 79, Nalkande 3-52, Rekhade 3-65, Dubey 3-88) by 286 runs

Two seasons on, Nair is at the forefront of Vidarbha's charge to a third Ranji Trophy title, having batted all day to construct an unbeaten 132, his 23rd first-class century and fourth first-class century of the season. It helped stretch Vidarbha's lead to 286 at stumps, but crucially they still have six wickets remaining. If Nair does lift the trophy, it'll be his third - his first two were with Karnataka in his first two seasons, 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Malewar and Nair put on 182 for the third wicket - Malewar making 73 to go with his superb 153 in the first innings - to defuse any tension there might have been in the Vidarbha camp after they lost Parth Rekhade and Dhruv Shorey inside the first three overs. Rekhade was bowled through the gate by Jalaj Saxena's in-drift, and Shorey was out to Mohammed Azharuddeen's brilliance as he dived full stretch to pluck a healthy edge in front of first slip to give MD Nidheesh an early wicket.

Kerala could have had a third very quickly, but Malewar was aided by luck when DRS deemed a not-out lbw decision off Saxena to be umpire's call. It was the start of a frustrating few hours for Kerala, where they dropped a sitter of a big-match player, two of their frontline seamers - Nidheesh and N Basil - received warnings twice for running onto the danger area of the pitch and then saw two healthy nicks off Saxena, their most prolific and in-form spinner, go through a vacant slip cordon when the need of the hour was to attack, not defend. All these factors combined to give Vidarbha the push they needed.

In the seventh over of the day, Malewar survived again, this time overturning an lbw call on DRS after being given out to Nidheesh, with replays showing the ball swung in late and would have missed leg stump. Things were happening quickly, and Kerala should have remained on the offensive. They didn't and paid the price.

Nair was good enough to pick gaps through the cover as Kerala left the off side open to have him drive against the turn. His ability to mix that up by playing a superb reverse sweep all along the ground made him a tough prospect to bowl at. Malewar's temperament stood out as he absorbed the pressure from Saxena and played largely within himself until he got to his half-century and then stepped out to play a glorious drive over mid-off.

As the partnership grew, Kerala resorted to a leg-stump line briefly to try to unsettle the batters. But given Vidarbha were sitting pretty with a lead, realisation dawned for Kerala that they needed to be a little more on the offensive, by which time the pair had already put on 100 runs.

Nair survived on 65 when a leading edge off Saxena didn't carry to the bowler, and he responded by offsetting any pressure by playing the reverse sweep. En route, he went past the 800-run mark for the season and charged into the 80s by hitting Aditya Sarwate for two back-to-back sixes - one over long-on and long-off. As he brought up his century, Nair dropped his bat, removed his gloves and showed two palms towards the dressing room - a symbolic gesture to signal his nine hundreds across the season - before taking guard and continuing to blunt the bowling.

Then a sharp tuner from Sarwate spun back in to trap him lbw, a decision that Kerala got overturned in their favour through the DRS. But moments like those were far and few amid a largely frustrating day for Kerala, whose hopes of a maiden title seem all but gone, with them needing a miracle to make a match of this on the final day.