Batsmen messed up again Bengal squandered a solid start given by their openers on Day III of their Ranji Trophy Group A clash versus Rajasthan at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur.

Chasing 320 for victory, Koushik Ghosh (64) and captain Abhimanyu Easwaran (62) put on 115 for the opening stand. But soon after, a mini collapse reduced Bengal to 153/4.

Fortunately, Anustup Majumdar (20 batting) and Sreevats Goswami (19 batting) were able to avert further trouble for the remainder of the day with Bengal reaching 185/4 at stumps.

They still need 135 more for victory and for that to happen, senior pros Anustup and Sreevats need to make a sizeable contribution, though Bengal still have Shahbaz Ahmed and Arnab Nandi who can both bat.

As for the bowlers, they yet again struggled to dismiss the lower order. Resuming on 156/8, Rajasthan’s lower-order batsmen added 45 more to make the target stiffer for Bengal. Skipper Abhimanyu, however, remains optimistic. “It’s equal opportunity now for both teams.

“It’s never easy to chase on the final day, but with our experience and the batters we have, we should get through,” he said. Coach Arun Lal asked his men to play 'tight cricket', which would make the opponents work hard for wickets.

'We had a good start, but the new ball started swinging a lot and that caused the problem. For tomorrow, I will tell the boys to play tight cricket and make the opposition work hard for each and every wicket,' Lal said.