Five for Akash Deep as Bengal take enormous lead

Bengal 438 and 59 for two (Gharami 12*, Majumdar 9*) lead Madhya Pradesh 170 (Jain 65, Shubham 44*, Akash Deep 5 for 42) by 327 runs

MP’s hopes of clawing again hinged on getting as near Bengal’s first-innings rating of 438, however an everyday stream of wickets thwarted their progress. Three of their batting pillars – Rajat Patidar, Aditya Shrivastava and the returning Venkatesh Iyer – managed scores of 0, 7 and seven respectively as MP slumped to 101 for six.

Akash, who has shouldered the accountability of main Bengal’s assault in Mukesh Kumar’s absence, ended up along with his third five-for of the season to take his wickets tally to 36 in 15 innings at a median of 20.08. He was complemented by left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed, who completed with 2 for 30.

In their second dig, Bengal misplaced openers Karan Lal ans Abhimanyu Easwaran early, however may have Anustup Majumdar and Sudip Gharami, centurions from the primary innings, resume of their quest to bat MP out of the match and seal their second Ranji remaining look in three seasons.