Fine bowling by young Piyush Chawla [Images] put hosts Uttar Pradesh within grasp of the vital first innings lead against Bengal on the third day of five-day Ranji Trophy final in Lucknow on Tuesday.

Bengal were 349 for eight in reply to Uttar Pradesh's first innings of 387 when bad light stopped play.

The visitors need 39 runs to surpass the hosts' total, with Laxmi Ratan Shukla, the only recognised batsman, unbeaten on 50.

Chawla, a diminutive leg-break googly bowler, claimed four Bengal wickets for 71 runs, thus raising the hopes of his team gaining the crucial first innings lead and winning the title.

Bad light stopped play about half an hour before the scheduled close even as UP bowled 70.1 overs, already incurring a slow over-rate.

Earlier, resuming their first innings at the overnight score of 138 for 2, Bengal's batsmen were immediately in trouble with their set batsman Arindam Das being dismissed for 60, caught by Amir Khan off the bowling of Chawla.

Despite useful contributions from Rohan Gavaskar (49) and Manoj Tiwari (43), Bengal found themselves hanging by a thread at stumps on the third day.

Tiwari, after scoring 50 valuable runs with Shukla, was dismissed LBW off the bowling of pacer Praveen Kumar.

The hosts also missed some sitters during the day, with ace Team India members Suresh Raina flooring Shukla's catch, when Bengal's score read 291 for 7, while Chawla too squandered an easy run-out with a wayward throw.

The last Bengal wicket to fall was that of S S Lahiri, who expressed resentment when umpire A V Jaiprakash declared him out, caught at forward short leg by Shivakant Shukla off Chawla's bowling.

At close of play, Shukla, on 50, and R R Bose, 3, were the two unbeaten Bengal batsmen.

Scorecard

Uttar Pradesh (1st innings): 387

Bengal (1st innings):
Arindam Das c Amir Khan b Piyush Chawla 60
S Das b Srivastava 34
A Jhunjhunwala lbw Piyush Chawla 22
S Singh b Piyush Chawla 23
R Gavaskar lbw Kumar 49
M Tiwary lbw Kumar 43
D Dasgupta c Amir Khan b Zaidi 20
L Shukla batting 50
S Lahiri c Shukla Piyush Chawla 21
RR Bose batting 3
Extras: (b-4, lb-6, w-6, nb-8) 24
Total: (for 8 wkts, in 116 overs) 349

Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-102, 3-143, 4-186, 5-204, 6-252, 7-302, 8-331.

Bowling: Zaidi 26-5-65-1, Kumar 31-5-123-2, Srivastava 28-4-80-1, Piyush Chawla 31-7-71-4.