Lucknow: The intense battle for the first innings lead in the Ranji Trophy final hung in balance as Uttar Pradesh and Bengal had reasons to be optimistic at stumps on the third day at the K.D. Singh Babu Stadium here on Tuesday.

Facing UP's first innings total of 387, Bengal was 349 for eight when bad light brought an early end to the day's play. If Bengal needs 39 more runs, UP requires two wickets for the lead.

With a fortunate Laxmi Ratan Shukla still around on 50 and Ranadeb Bose on three, Bengal expects the duo to reproduce the kind of ninth-wicket partnership that saved the side from relegation in the last season's final Elite Group match against Madhya Pradesh at Siliguri.

The host is pinning its hopes on the bowlers to come out fresh on Wednesday morning and polish off the Bengal tail. Going by the batting-friendly state of the pitch, the slender lead may well prove decisive although two more days are left in the final.

Chawla excels

If Bengal is in a spot of worry, it is mainly due to the damage caused by the 17-year-old leg-spinner Piyush Chawla. The baby-faced youngster struck thrice on Tuesday, to add to the one he took on Monday, and remained the pick of the bowlers.

The visiting team has itself to be blamed, for almost all the batsmen failed to make good of the starts they got. Arindam Das added just one run to his overnight 59 and was caught behind to become Chawla's second victim. The fall of this early wicket brought Bengal under pressure and it never breathed easy for the rest of the day. The batsmen failed to string together a single threatening partnership and allowed UP a reason to celebrate at regular intervals.

The contribution of young Chawla stood out as he bowled to his field with a consistent middle-and-leg stump line. "Since I am not a big turner of the ball and the pitch is not offering any great help, this was the line I had to maintain," said the Moradabad-boy looking pleased with his four-wicket haul, so far, in what is the biggest match of his debut season.

Pandey absent

In fact, UP missed the left-arm spin of the seasoned all-rounder Gyanendra Pandey who did not take the field all day since he was nursing a boil on his palm.

This brought Chawla under added pressure to deliver and the young lad did not disappoint his supporters.

Chawla bowled Shib Sagar Singh, unbeaten overnight, even as Rohan Gavaskar was treating medium pacer Praveen Kumar with disdain. Three of Gavaskar's six boundaries came off Praveen's one over in which the left-hander sent the ball to the mid-wicket, cover and square-leg boundaries. Just when he looked good for a big knock, Praveen got his revenge by trapping Gavaskar leg-before.

Thereafter, it was the second new ball that did the trick for UP. Ashish Winston Zaidi, bowling his first over with the new ball, had dangerman Deep Dasgupta caught behind and dealt a crushing blow to the Bengal hopes.

Shukla, lucky to be dropped at 22 by Suresh Raina at point off Praveen, went on to last the day, but saw the dismissals of Manoj Tiwari and Sourashish Lahiri.

Tiwari, following a 156-minute stay for a flawless 43, fell leg-before to Praveen after adding 50 runs for the seventh wicket.

When Lahiri, lucky to escape the danger of being run-out, fell to Chawla, Bengal was gasping at 331 for eight.

Thereafter, Bose kept Shukla's company for 44 minutes and played out 38 balls before bad light took the battle for the first innings lead to another day.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: 387

Bengal — 1st innings: A. Das c Khan b Chawla 60, S. Das b Srivastav 34, A. Jhunjhunwala lbw b Chawla 22, S.S. Singh b Chawla 23, R. Gavaskar lbw b Kumar 49, M. Tiwari lbw b Kumar 43, D. Dasgupta c Khan b Zaidi 20, L.R. Shukla (batting) 50, S. Lahiri b S. Shukla b Chawla 21, R. Bose (batting) 3, Extras (b-4, lb-6, nb-7, w-6) 24. Total (for eight wickets, in 116 overs) 349.

Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-102, 3-143, 4-186, 5-203, 6-252, 7-302, 8-331.

Uttar Pradesh bowling: A.W. Zaidi 26-5-65-1, P. Kumar 31-8-123-2, S. Srivastava 28-4-80-1, P. Chawla 31-7-71-4.

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