The pacers stuck to their task to help Bengal finish the first day of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final clash against Jharkhand on top.

Akash Deep struck four times while Mukesh Kumar took three wickets as Bengal bowled Jharkhand out for a paltry 173 on Day I of the game at Eden Gardens. Only 66.2 overs were possible on Tuesday due to insufficient light.

The pace trio of Akash, Mukesh and Ishan Porel made fair use of the presence of grass on the Eden pitch, which offered a decent bit of carry as well. Such was their discipline and accuracy right through that Shahbaz Ahmed’s left-arm spin wasn’t required at all.

While Mukesh focused mainly on away movement, Akash and Porel tried to move the ball both ways which troubled the rival batters on quite a few occasions.

Even Akash Ghatak (1/15), who didn’t have too impressive a first-class debut in the previous game against Odisha, came up with a good supporting role for the quicks. He may not be too fast, but on this occasion, Ghatak kept hitting the right length which also fetched him the key wicket of Jharkhand captain Virat Singh in the opening session.

The morning session at the Eden on the first day hasn’t been easy at all for any of the teams so far. Bengal made the right decision to bowl first after winning the toss and it paid them dividends right away as they had the visitors wobbling at 72/4 at lunch.

The going only got tougher from thereon for Jharkhand. It was thanks to Kumar Suraj (89 not out), their No.3 batsman, that Jharkhand’s first-innings total could cross 150.

It wasn’t a very fluent knock from Suraj though. The left-hander was let off on 55 when Abhimanyu Easwaran dropped a relatively easy catch at second slip, with Mukesh being the unlucky bowler.

Late in the day’s final session, Suraj, then on 73, edged one to Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary in the slip cordon off Akash’s bowling. But the square-leg umpire ruled in favour of the batsman, claiming the ball had touched the ground before Tiwary caught it. What also hurt Jharkhand was the unavailability of their experienced batsman Saurabh Tiwary. The former captain sustained a hamstring injury during warm-up on Tuesday which ruled him out of the game.

Bengal were scheduled to bat a few overs before the close of play on the day, but early stumps had to be taken as the light faded. Given the current situation, Bengal would only hope their batting group doesn’t mess things up once again.

Brief scores: Jharkhand 173 (K. Suraj 89 n.o.; A. Deep 4/62, M. Kumar 3/61) vs Bengal. At stumps, Day I.