Patient half centuries by Rohan Gavaskar (77 not out) and Arindam Das (56) helped Bengal reach 208 for three on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match against Karnataka, at the Infosys grounds in Mysore on Saturday.

Winning the toss, Bengal elected to bat first.

However, the team suffered early setbacks as openers Subhomoy Das (10) and Debang Gandhi (19) were out for 52 runs in 21.4 overs.

- Ranji Trophy 2005-06: Complete coverage

Then Arindam Das and Gavaskar steadied the innings and added 84 runs for the third wicket, before Das was caught by Robin Uthappa at silly point off the bowling of Sunil B Joshi.

Das scored 56 runs (3 fours, 1 six) in 226 minutes from 193 balls.

Gavaskar and Manoj Tiwari (28) were at the crease at close of play.

Spinners Sunil Joshi and Udit B Patel were the leading wicket-takers for Karnataka.

Scorecard:

Bengal (1st innings):
Arindam Das c Uthappa b Joshi 56
SG Das c Somasunder b Vinay Kumar 10
DJ Gandhi lbw b Akhil 19
RS Gavaskar not out 77
M Tewari not out 28
Extras: (b 1, lb 4, w 2, nb 11) 18
Total: (3 wickets, 90 overs) 208
To bat: LR Shukla, RR Bose, SS Paul, SS Lahiri, S Singh, D Dasgupta.

Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-52, 3-137.

Bowling: Vinay Kumar 16-3-36-1 (6nb, 2w), Ganesh 11-2-27-0 (5nb), Joshi 26-4-47-1, Akhil 16-5-36-1, Patel 20-2-51-0, Uthappa 1-0-6-0.

Karnataka team: S Somasunder (c), BM Rowland, AR Uthappa, B Chipli, VST Naidu (wk), SP Shinde, B Akhil, SB Joshi, D Ganesh, R Vinay Kumar, UB Patel.