Ranji Trophy: Shardul Thakur's five-for puts Mumbai in command vs Bengal

Kolkata Mumbai pacer Shradul Thakurs third successive fivewicket haul left hosts Bengal staring at another humiliating defeat at home in their Ranji Trophy cricket Group A fixture at Eden Gardens todayFresh from his ninewicket match haul in their win against UP Thakur 537 triggered the collapse as Bengal despite playing with eight batsmen found themselves in tatters at 130 for six on day two still trailing by 284 with four wickets in hands to Mumbais first innings total of 414Bengal still require 135 runs to avoid a repeat of follow on for second successive match as Mumbai will now press for a bonus point winMumbai bowler Shardul Thakur appeals for a wicket during the second day of the Ranji Trophy match against Bengal in Kolkata on Monday PicPTIAmid the ruins Manoj Tiwary stood tall with a wellmade 63 off 78 balls with 40 runs coming in boundaries as his elegant strokemaking was the only bright spot in an otherwise Bengals gloomy dayHaving begun with three consecutive boundaries Tiwary completed his 50 from 64 balls with the team on 66 for four that summed up Bengals batting plight But Thakur produced the gem of a delivery to dismiss Tiwary who was beaten by the pace and bounce to take a thin inside edge behind stumps as Bengals batting crumbled once againThakur then castled Shukla 11 for his fourth fivewicket haul and third in three matches to take his tally to 23 from four matches this seasonLeading the pace attack in absence of Zaheer Khan and Dhawal Kulkarni Thakur said I took it up as a challenge and all my hard work is giving results I did not have a good debut season a couple years ago But Im confident now as Im bowling in the right areasThe 23yearold pacer had taken six wickets against Railways and against UP he had six wickets in the first innings and three in the secondPoor fielding and and dropped catches once again became the order of the day for Bengal as Mumbai propped up by a 43run last wicket partnership by Siddhesh Lad 64 and Kshemal Waigankar 13 not out posted a commanding 414 in their first inningsThere were three more dropped catches on the day taking their total count to six in Mumbais first innings as the match seemed to be slipping out of Bengals hands much like what had happened against Karnataka when they had lost by nine wicketsResuming at their overnight score of 306 for four Mumbai skipper Suryakumar Yadav was dropped on 26 by Subhojit Banerjee who failed to hold on to a low catch letting down bowler Ashok Dinda big timeThe Bengal pace spearhead tested the Mumbai skipper with his accurate off stump line and generated swing to create pressure from the club house end something that helped Pritam Chakraborty bag his maiden firstclass wicket in Yadav 36Bengal captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla is clean bowled on the second day of the Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai in Kolkata on Monday PicPTIRestricted at the other end the Mumbai skipper threw his bat at a wide delivery only to get a thin edge behind the stumps to give Bengal the first break at 324 for 5 in 945 oversContinuing his fiery spell Dinda claimed the scalp of young Sarfaraz Khan The 17yearold who had become the third youngest Indian firstclass debutant was out leg before for 1Wilkin Mota 4 Shradul Thakur 2 and Iqbal Abdulla 7 went in quick succession as they were 371 for nine but poor catching once again meant Mumbai hurried past the psychological 400markBengal could have easily bowled out Mumbai for 391 but Lad got a reprieve on 47 as Abhimanyu Easwaran dropped a sitter at deep point boundary as the Mumbai batsman posted his fourth FC halfcentury in his comeback inningsLad was again dropped on 60 with Sudeep Chatterjee putting down an easy catch at slip but the damage was done for Bengal by that timeFor Bengal skipper Shukla and Veer Pratap claimed three wickets each while Dinda and Chakraborty got two apieceBrief ScoresMumbai 414 in 1212 overs Siddhesh Lad 64 Laxmi Ratan Shukla 358 Veer Pratap Singh 3114 Pritam Chakraborty 282 Ashok Dinda 2107Bengal 130 for six in 46 overs Manoj Tiwary 63 Shradul Thakur 537