Tamil Nadu tightened the noose around Bengal's neck, finishing the second day on 164 for 3, for an overall lead of 237, after shutting out the hosts for 145 in the Ranji Trophy tie in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Bengal played miserably as the visitors bowled with their tails up, taking seven Bengal wickets for 113 runs after they resumed at the overnight score of 32 for 3.
The green top pitch that Bengal had prepared backfired for the hosts as they found the swing too hot to handle.
The only bright spot in the Bengal innings was the batting of Sourav Ganguly, who, resuming on the overnight score of 8, went on to hit a fluent 59 before inside-edging Srinivas on to the stumps.
As wickets tumbled at the other end Ganguly looked in regal touch, cutting and driving with élan while hitting nine boundaries during his stay at the wicket.
He, however, had some tense moments, surviving a leg before appeal to Jesuraj and then an outside edge of Yo Mahesh fell short of second slip.
He then returned to scalp two Tamil Nadu wickets, removing S Badrinath with a sharp in-cutter and then had Sharath edging him to second slip.
However, umpire Hariharan again warned Ganguly today for running on to the danger area, forcing the former India captain to bowl round the stumps.
Scorecard
Tamil Nadu (1st innings):
S Sriram lbw b Ganguly 5
K Vasudevadas b Bose 5
S Badrinath lbw Ganguly 17
S Sharath c Ganguly b Paul 8
H Badani c Suphajit Paul b Lahiri 67
R Sathish lbw Ganguly 22
D Karthik c Jhunjhunwala b Dinda 21
M Shrinivas c Dasgupta b Dinda 16
A Kapoor c & b Bose 25
V Mahesh not out 14
R Jesuraj c Dasgupta b Bose 0
Extras: (lb 12, nb 6) 18
Total: (all out, 65.3 overs, 307 mins) 218
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-23, 3-40, 4-50, 5-98, 6-140, 7-177, 8-198, 9-214, 10-218.
Bowling: Paul 20-3-47-1, Bose 14.3-5-43-3, Ganguly 15.5-2-62-3 (6nb), Dinda 11-2-37-2, Lahiri 4-1-17-1, Gavaskar 0.1-0-0-0.
Bengal (1st innings):
A Das b Jesuraj 0
S Paul b Jesuraj 3
A Jhunjhunwala c Sathish b Mahesh 35
R Gavaskar c Karthik b Jesuraj 0
S Ganguly b Shrinivas 59
D Dasgupta lbw Mahesh 0
L Shukla c Karthik b Sathish 5
S Lahiri c Sriram b Jesuraj 10
R Bose b Sathish 7
S Paul c Karthik b Jesuraj 8
A Dinda not out 0.
Extras: (b 4, lb 4, w 1, nb 9) 18
Total: (all out, 52.1 overs, 247 mins) 145
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-16, 3-20, 4-78, 5-78, 6-98, 7-121, 8-128, 9-145, 10-145.
Bowling: Jesuraj 20.1-5-40-5 (2nb), Shrinivas 11-1-43-1 (6nb, 1w), Mahesh 9-1-38-2, Kapoor 2-0-3-0, Sathish 10-4-13-2 (1nb).
Tamil Nadu (2nd innings):
A Kapoor lbw Paul 18
S Sriram not out 88
S Badrinath c Arindam Das b Ganguly 17
S Sharath lbw Ganguly 1
H Badani not out 33.
Extras: (lb 3, w 2, nb 2) 7
Total: (3 wickets, 39.3 overs) 164
To bat: D Karthik, V Mahesh, R Jesuraj, R Sathish, M Shrinivas, K Vasudevadas.
Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-72, 3-76.
Bowling: Paul 9-0-44-1 (2nb, 1w), Bose 11-2-38-0 (1w), Ganguly 8-1-22-2, Dinda 7-0-35-0, Lahiri 4.3-0-22-0.
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