Off-spinner Romesh Powar grabbed a match haul of 10 wickets as Mumbai wrapped up Bengal's second innings for 181 to record an innings and 132 runs victory on the fourth and final day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Powar, who scalped seven wickets in the first innings, took three for 59 while medium pacer Ajit Agarkar dismissed four Bengal batsmen for 32 runs to ensure an outright victory and five points for Mumbai at the Jadavpur University campus ground, Salt Lake.
Resuming at the overnight score of 14 for no loss, Bengal were all out in the post tea session in 83.2 overs.
Skipper Rohan Gavaskar, who remained unbeaten on 70 (244 m, 164 b, 9x4), was the lone exception in an otherwise grossly indisciplined batting display.
Earlier, the hosts cheaply lost openers Arindam Das (11) and Nikhil Haldipur (21) with only 35 runs on the board.
Agarkar, who was not successful in the previous innings, returned with a vengeance and broke the opening stand before picking up the wicket of Deep Dasgupta for zero.
It was then the turn of Powar to rip through the Bengal middle order. The offie used the bounce of the wicket to good effect to dismiss Sanjib Sanyal and Sourashis Lahiri, the principal scorers for Bengal in the first innings.
Mumbai, who had routed Andhra Pradesh by an innings in the last match, gained five points, including one bonus point for gaining an innings victory, to take their points tally to 12 from four ties. Bengal have four points from three matches.
Bengal, who had conceded a mammoth 313-run lead in the first innings, failed to show any resilience to stretch the innings for a possible draw on the final day.
Gavaskar's unbeaten knock was of little help as none of the other batsmen showed the patience or the grit to stick on and build a decent partnership.
Coach Karsan Ghavri attributed the huge loss to ''lack of discipline'' in Bengal's batting that saw the fall of 20 wickets in less than two days.
His counterpart Chandrakant Pandit gave credit to his bowlers for keeping constant pressure on the rival batsmen.
''Bowlers kept up the pressure, but I should not also take the credit away from our batsmen,'' he said.
Mumbai skipper Sairaj Bahutule said he was lucky to win the toss, which was quite important on this kind of slow wicket.
Expressing satisfaction at the performance of the side and his own contribution to the victory, all-rounder Ajit Agarkar said the lack of application by Bengal batsmen made the task easier.
About the Bangladesh tour, Agarkar said he is looking forward to it, but refused to attach much importance to the death threats issued by a militant group of that country.
Scorecard
Mumbai (1st innings): 552 for 7 decl
Bengal (1st innings): 239
Bengal (2nd innings): overnight 14 for no loss
A Das c Wasim Jaffer b Agarkar 11
N Haldipur b Shinde 21
D Dasgupta c V Samant b Agarkar 0
R Gavaskar n o 70
A Majumder b S Bahutule 4
L R Shukla c N Kulkarni b Powar 14
S Sanyal c A Mujumdar b Powar 16
R Kundu c N Kulkarni b Agarkar 12
S Lahiri c V Samant b Powar 16
M Lodhgar c A Mujumdar b Agarkar 6
R Bose run out 0
Extras: (b-1, lb-2, nb-8) 11
Total: (all out, 83.2 overs) 181
Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-35, 3-43, 4-60, 5-89, 6-109, 7-139, 8-162, 9-180.
Bowling: Agarkar 19-7-32-4, Shinde 10.2-4-25-1, Powar 24-4-59-3, Bahutule 17-5-36-1, N Kulkarni 13-5-26-0.
