Bengal’s hopes of making the Ranji Trophy final brightened significantly as they pushed defending champions Madhya Pradesh to a corner in the ongoing semi-final contest in Indore.

The architect of Bengal’s success on Friday, the third day of the match, was pacer Akash Deep, whose five-wicket haul rocked the hosts at the Holkar Stadium.

The right-arm bowler finished with figures of 5/42 as Bengal bundled out Madhya Pradesh for 170. That gave Manoj Tiwary’s team a massive first-innings lead of 268 runs as they had made 438 in their first essay.

Bengal, however, did not enforce the follow-on and were 59/2 when the stumps were drawn.

While the openers — Abhimanyu Easwaran (19) and Karan Lal (17) — did not last long, first innings centurions Sudip Gharami (12 batting) and Anustup Majumdar (9 batting) were at the crease giving Bengal hope. With two more days to go, Bengal would like to pile on runs and present an improbable target to Madhya Pradesh.

Resuming on their overnight score of 56/2, Madhya Pradesh lost Anubhav Agarwal after adding just three runs to their total. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals thereafter and were 101/6 at one stage.

Saransh Jain (65) and Shubham Sharma (44 not out) tried to stage a fightback. But Akash Deep ended their 54- run stand by removing Saransh.

Shahbaz Ahmed (2/30), Ishan Porel (1/22) and Mukesh Kumar (1/39) were also among wickets for Bengal.

Brief scores: Bengal 438 and 59/2. Madhya Pradesh 170 (Saransh Jain 65; Akash Deep 5/42). At stumps, Day III