Ishwar Pandey swung the fortunes Madhya Pradesh’s way with a four-wicket haul in just 16 overs.
Fellow seamers Puneet Datey and Chandrakant Sakure picked up the cue from their senior to share six wickets between them as Bengal was bowled out for 121 on day two of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal at the Brabourne stadium on Thursday.
Madhya Pradesh is 141 runs ahead, having taken a first innings lead of 127.
Abhimanyu Easwaran (48 off 100 balls) showed patience and shot selection while his teammates lacked the skill to negotiate the moving ball and perished slashing against the line. Datey (three for 36), Sakure (three for 38) kept up the pressure.
Pandey dealt twin blows, removing Manoj Tiwary and Wriddhiman Saha in a 5-2-8-2 spell.
The MP close-in fielders dropped catches, yet the three bowlers showed the guile to deceive the batsmen, as wicketkeeper Naman Ojha came into play with three catches.
With three days remaining, the Bengal bowlers came out for the second time.
Ashoke Dinda (three for 85) and Veer Pratap Singh (five for 76) were responsible for restricting MP to 348 in the morning; they were out again as the shadows crept up.
The scores:
Madhya Pradesh: Aditya Srivastava c Goswami b P. Ojha 65, Jalaj Saxena c Mandal b V.P. Singh 8, Rajat Patidar b Mandal 17, Naman Ojha c Tiwary b V.P. Singh 64, Devendra Bundela c Saha b Dinda 58, Harpreet Singh c Shaw b Dinda 51, Ankit Dane lbw b V.P. Singh 17, Ankit Sharma lbw b V.P. Singh 17, Puneet Datey c Saha b V.P. Singh 0, Ishwar Pandey c P. Ojha b V.P. Singh 13, Chandrakant Sakure (not out) 9; Extras (b-3, nb-4): 7; Total (in 114.5 overs): 348.
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-39, 3-141, 4-162, 5-254, 6-277, 7-303, 8-319, 9-348.
Bengal bowling: Ashoke Dinda 28.5-10-85-3, Veer Pratap Singh 23-3-76-5, Mukesh Kumar 23-7-56-0, Pragyan Ojha 19-2-59-1, Sayan Shekhar Mandal 19-3-66-1, Pankaj Kumar Shaw 2-0-3-0.
Bengal — 1st innings: Abhimanyu Eswaran lbw b Datey 48, Sayan Shekhar Mandal b Datey 3, Sudip Chatterjee c Dane b Sakure 7, Manoj Tiwary c Naman Ojha b Pandey 3, Wriddhiman Saha lbw b Pandey 0, Sreevats Goswami c Bundela b Sakure 22, Pankaj Kumar Shaw b Datey 2, Pragyan Ojha c N. Ojha b Pandey 8, Ashoke Dinda c Harpreet b Sakure 21, Veer Pratap Singh c N. Ojha b Pandey 0, Mukesh Kumar (not out) 4; Extras (lb-3): 3; Total (in 45.2 overs): 121.
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-45, 3-48, 4-54, 5-68, 6-72, 7-92, 8-96, 9-109.
Madhya Pradesh bowling: Ishwar Pandey 16-4-45-4, Puneet Datey 13-3-30-3, Chandrakant Sakure 14.2-4-38-3, Harpreet Singh 2-0-5-0.
Madhya Pradesh — 2nd innings: Aditya Srivastava (batting) 10, Jalaj Saxena (batting) 4; Total (for no loss, in four overs): 14.
Bengal bowling: Ashoke Dinda 3-1-9-0, Veep Pratap Singh 3-1-5-0.
