Mumbai pacer Shradul Thakur's third successive five-wicket haul left hosts Bengal staring at another humiliating defeat at home in their Ranji Trophy cricket Group A fixture at Eden Gardens today.
Fresh from his nine-wicket match haul in their win against UP, Thakur (5/37) 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 Mumbai's first innings total of 414.
Bengal still require 135 runs to avoid a repeat of follow on for second successive match, as Mumbai will now press for a bonus point win.
Amid the ruins, Manoj Tiwary stood tall with a well-made 63 off 78 balls with 40 runs coming in boundaries as his elegant stroke-making was the only bright spot in an otherwise Bengal's gloomy day.
Having begun with three consecutive boundaries, Tiwary completed his 50 from 64 balls with the team on 66 for four that summed up Bengal's 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 Bengal's batting crumbled once again.
Thakur then castled Shukla (11) for his fourth five-wicket haul and third in three matches to take his tally to 23 from four matches this season.
Leading 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 I'm confident now as I'm bowling in the right areas."
The 23-year-old pacer had taken six wickets against Railways, and against UP he had six wickets in the first innings and three in the second.
Poor fielding and and dropped catches once again became the order of the day for Bengal as Mumbai propped up by a 43-run last wicket partnership by Siddhesh Lad (64) and Kshemal Waigankar (13 not out) posted a commanding 414 in their first innings.
There were three more dropped catches on the day, making their total count to six in Mumbai's first innings, as the match seemed to be slipping out of Bengal's hands much like what had happened against Karnataka when they had lost by nine wickets.
