Bengal's batsmen were ultra-defensive after having conceded a first innings lead to Mumbai and crawled their way to 220 for 4 in 102.4 overs in their second innings on the third day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match in Mumbai on Sunday.
Resuming at the overnight score of 37 for none, after trailing the home team by 73 runs on the first innings, the Bengal batsmen made clear their aim was to deny Mumbai an outright victory and an additional two points from the tie.
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Arindam Das, who stonewalled for just over seven hours in making 71 from 226 balls, and former captain Rohan Gavaskar, who remained unbeaten at close with 71 runs to his credit after a stay of 217 minutes, epitomised their goal.
The third wicket duo put on 97 runs in 37 overs, as the score advanced from 92 for two to 189, before being separated when Das, who struck only six fours, gave a catch to slip fielder Onkar Khanvilkar off Mumbai captain Nilesh Kulkarni.
Earlier, his opening partner Shubomay Das was out 42, inclusive of seven hits to the fence, and one-down Devang Gandhi fell for 14.
At stumps Gavaskar, who faced 142 balls and hit six fours before play was called off due to bad light for the third day running, and Bengal captain Deep Dasgupta (14 off 25 balls) were the unbeaten batsmen.
The visitors are ahead of the hosts by 147 runs with six wickets in hand.
For Mumbai, who missed injured off spinner Ramesh Powar, left arm spinner Kulkarni captured 2 for 56 on an easy-paced wicket while first innings bowling hero Swapnil Hazare bowled waywardly and ended up wicket-less.
Bengal, the group leaders with seven points going into this tie, made their intentions clear from the first ball this morning and continued to accumulate runs at a snail's pace.
There was nothing much in the Mumbai attack on a wicket that had become slow after having been lively on the first day when the visitors were shot out for 171 by the three-pronged Mumbai pace attack.
In 29 overs before lunch the visitors added only 45 runs to be 82 for one at the break. The post-tea session saw 68 runs being put on in the same number of overs, a clear indication of Bengal's intentions.
Das, dropped on 56 by slip fielder Amol Muzumdar off part time slow bowler Nishit Shetty, and Gavaskar were content to wait for the loose ball to increase the score.
The opener finally fell in the post-tea session after Gavaskar had reached his individual half-century. His own fifty had been raised in 333 minutes and off 203 balls.
Mumbai took the second new ball after his dismissal and succeeded in sending back Laxmi Ratan Shukla, who tried to drive Avishkar Salvi and snicked low and to the right of wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant, who pouched the catch.
It was Samant's third catch of the innings and sixth of the match. Dasgupta showed more urgency in the company of Gavaskar and the scoring rate perked up a bit.
To make matters worse on a boring day's play during which only 183 runs were added in 87.4 overs was the fact that 22 minutes were lost in the morning session for changing the ball.
Scorecard
Bengal (1st innings): 171
Mumbai (1st innings): 244
Bengal (2nd innings) (overnight 37-0):
A Das c Khanvilkar b Kulkarni 70
S Das c Samant b Malvi 42
D Gandhi c Samant b Kulkarni 14
R Gavaskar batting 71
L R Shukla c Samant b Salvi 1
D Dasgupta batting 14
Extras: (b 1, lb 4, nb 1, w 2) 8
Total: (for 4 wkts, in 102.4 overs) 220
Fall of wickets: 1-57, 2-92, 3-189, 4-199
Bowling: Salvi 25-6-44-1, Hazare 28-9-69-0, Malvi 18-6-32-1, Kulkarni 25.4-8-56-2, Khanvilkar 1-0-4-0, Muzumdar 1-0-2-0, Shetty 4-0-8-0.
