Rest of India fought back well after conceding a 132-run first innings lead to Gujarat, but the newly crowned Ranji Trophy champions maintained the upper hand at the end of the third day of the five-day Irani Cup match here on Sunday.
At stumps, Gujarat were 227 for eight wickets, ahead of Rest by an overall margin of 359 runs with two wickets in hand at the Brabourne Stadium, with left arm orthodox slow bowler Shahbaz Nadeem being the pick of the Rest bowlers with excellent figures of 4 for 53 from 23 overs.
The unbeaten Gujarat batsmen at the crease were first innings century-maker Chirag Gandhi (55), after a stay of 142 minutes in which he struck seven fours, and night-watchman Hardik Patel (0), after a stay of 23 minutes.
Prolific opener Priyank Panchal led the way with a patient 73 in 212 minutes for Gujarat after the early fall of his partner Samit Gohil to Pankaj Singh. The twin dismissals of Panchal, who faced 135 balls and hit nine fours, to Siddharth Kaul, and captain Parthiv Patel for 32, unfortunate to be given out caught off the pads by umpire Virendra Sharma prompting the batsman to keep glancing behind on his way back, helped Rest keep things tight.