Bengal are bowled out twice in two days and leave Services needing 197

Bengal have been bowled out twice on a dry Palam surface and go into the third day defending a target Services have already reduced to 197

Two days of this Ranji Trophy Elite Group C match at the Palam A Stadium in New Delhi have produced four completed or part-completed innings and no batter past 56. Bengal, who won the toss and batted, were dismissed for 184 and then for 146.

In between, their spinners bowled Services out for 122 to earn a first-innings lead of 62. It was the one passage of the match that went entirely Bengal's way, and their batting could not build on it.

Services closed on 12 for 0 from five overs, Shubham Rohilla unbeaten on 9 and Nitin Tanwar on 3. They need 197 more runs with all ten wickets standing.

Narang's five wickets leave Bengal short

Bengal lost their first wicket with 10 on the board and never recovered the initiative. Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sudip Gharami rebuilt for a time, Gharami making 38 from 65 balls, before the middle order fell away and left Bengal 101 for 5.

Easwaran reached his fifty from 93 balls and was out for 56 from 106, the highest score of the innings. Bengal were all out for 184 in 54 overs.

Pulkit Narang did the damage with 5 for 63, his tenth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Arjun Sharma supported him with 3 for 68.

Bengal's spinners claw back a lead

Services were 30 for 0 at tea on the opening day and the match looked like slipping away from Bengal entirely. It did not. The visitors took five wickets in the final session to leave Services 83 for 5 at the close, their captain Rajat Paliwal unbeaten on 23.

Pradipta Pramanik had 2 for 16 at that point, with Aamir Gani and Shahbaz Ahmed also among the wickets.

The innings carried into the second morning without stretching much further. Services were all out for 122 in 62.2 overs, 62 behind.

A second collapse undoes the advantage

A lead of 62 on a surface this slow was worth more than the figure suggested, and Bengal had the afternoon to put the match beyond a side that had just been bowled out inside 63 overs.

Instead they were dismissed again, for 146 in 52.5 overs, barely improving on their first effort. The target is 209, which on this ground is a serious ask but not an impossible one.

Services negotiated five overs before stumps without alarm, Gani and Pramanik sharing them.

Easwaran on a dry surface and a missing bowler

Easwaran described the pitch as dry and said it was "a bit challenging to make runs and also to survive", adding that he felt Bengal should have reached something closer to 250 in the first innings. Two days on, 250 in either innings would have settled the match.

Bengal were also without Mohammed Shami, who played their season opener against Delhi and was left out of the XI here. Asked about it after the first day, Easwaran said: "Nothing as such. He is okay."

His absence mattered less than it might have. The pitch has been a spinner's, and Bengal's spinners took the wickets that gave them their lead.

What the third day asks of both sides

Services have the simpler brief: 197 runs, ten wickets, and more than two days to get them. No batter on either side has yet made more than 56, which is the number Bengal will keep pointing at.

Bengal need early wickets before Rohilla and Tanwar settle, and they need Pramanik and Gani to find the same turn that brought them 122 in the first innings.

A Bengal side that began the season beating Delhi now has to defend a modest total to avoid a second-round defeat to a team outside the Ranji Trophy's traditional powers.

Scorecard: Bengal 184 (54 overs) and 146 (52.5 overs); Services 122 (62.2 overs) and 12 for 0 (5 overs). Services need 197 runs to win.

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