On a day dominated by pace bowlers from both sides, Madhya Pradesh held the upper hand over Bengal by taking a handsome first innings lead of 227 runs after skittling out the latter for a paltry 121 in their Ranji Trophy quarter final at the Brabourne Stadium today.

Choosing not to enforce the follow-on, MP ended day two of the five-day game at 14 without loss in their second innings - for an overall lead of 241 - with openers Aditya Shrivastava, who top-scored with 65 in the first essay, batting on 10, and Jalaj Saxena on 4.