Abhimanyu Easwaran in action (file photo)
Abhimanyu Easwaran's unbeaten 52 after Shahbaz Ahmed's brilliant performance, gave Bengal hope even as Madhya Pradesh held the upper-hand on the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy semi-final on Friday.
On a difficult pitch, the India A batter slammed six fours in his 104-ball knock as Bengal were precariously placed at 96/4, aiming at a target of 350.
Madhya Pradesh, on the other hand, need six wickets to reach their first Ranji final after 23 years.
Mumbai Indians' Kumar Kartikeya did the maximum damage for Madhya Pradesh.
He bowled 19 overs non-stop to end the day with figures of 3/35 to jump to joint-second in the top wicket-takers' list this season with Jharkhand's Shahbaz Nadeem.
Bengal lost the wicket of their in-form Sudip Gharami by sloppy umpiring and lack of DRS in Ranji Trophy. He was given lbw by umpire Ravikant Reddy who failed to notice the ball hitting his glove to a Saransh Jain delivery which was also out of the line.
Abhishek Raman got out for a second successive duck, this time off the first ball as Bengal got off to a horrible start in their stiff chase of 350.
Abhimanyu at the other end looked at ease and batted with positive intent with Gharami before his partner departed in the 12th over.
Abhishek Porel was promoted to No 4 but but he failed to make use of the opportunity as he was done in by one that turned in sharply.
First innings centurion Tiwary also could not make use of it and in his desperation to get going came down the track but failed to get proper elevation off Kartikeya's bowling.
(Inputs from PTI)
