Batters let Bengal down as they slumped to an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Mumbai in their Ranji Trophy Group B match at Eden Gardens on Sunday.

The home team suffered their first loss of the season as Mumbai recorded a victory by an innings and four runs on the third day of the match.

After they were all out for 199 in the first innings in reply to the opponents' score of 412, Bengal were asked to follow on. But they hardly managed to do any better in the second essay as well as they were bundled out for 209.

Right-arm pacer Mohit Avasthi turned out to be the star of the match with a match haul of 10 wickets, including a 7/52 in the second innings.

Like it was Anustup Majumdar in the first innings, Bengal had only one batter who put up some resistance in their second run. This time it was keeper-batter Abishek Porel who authored a defiant 82 off 83 balls, but his fighting knock was not enough top save his team.

After their first loss of the season, Bengal currently have 12 points from five games so far and are placed third on the table. On the other hand, Mumbai, with four wins from the campaign, are at the top with 27 points.

"We are disappointed after this loss. We, as a team, didn't perform well, especially in the batting department. But we still have two games to play. We will come back stronger against Kerala in our next match (starting February 9)," Bengal head coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla said after the match.

With 213 runs in arrears after their first innings effort, one expected the home team to compete better on Sunday. But the start itself was jittery as they were reduced to 44/2 inside 10 overs. They never recovered thereafter.

First innings centurion Anustup was out for 14, while captain Manoj Tiwary made only 26.

Brief scores: Mumbai 412. Bengal 199 and 209 (Abishek Porel 82; Mohit Avasthi 7/52). Mumbai won by an innings and 4 runs.