Avishek Jhunjhunwala and Arindam Chakrabarty came up with gritty knocks as Bengal meandered to 226 for 2 on a lifeless Eden Gardens track on the opening day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group B tie against Mumbai in Kolkata on Friday.
Electing to bat first, Bengal had a good start with openers Chakrabarty (81) and Arindam Das (26) stitching together a 71-run partnership that lasted for 115 minutes.
Pacer Swapnil Hazare got the first breakthrough by rapping Das on the pads, before Chakrabarty (232 b, 317 m, 14x4) and Jhunjhunwala saw the home side to lunch at 94/1.
The duo had little trouble in negotiating the Mumbai bowlers even though scoring runs was not easy as the ball was not coming on to the bat.
Both Chakrabarty and Jhunjhunwala hit some delightful strokes all round the wicket as they swooped on the loose balls during their long 201-minute stand.
The second wicket partnership yielded 130 runs and could be broken only in the post-tea session when Chakrabarty departed, caught and bowled to spinner Nilesh Kulkarni.
At stumps, Jhunjhunwala remained unbeaten on 87 (213 b, 247 m, 14x4), with Manoj Tiwary (9 batting) giving him company.
Bengal got five penalty runs after Mumbai wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant took off his gloves and dropped them on the ground to effect a run out and the ball thrown in by the fielder hit the gloves.
Scorecard
Bengal 1st innings
Arindam Das lbw b Hazare 26
AP Chakraborty c & b Kulkarni 81
AA Jhunjhunwala not out 87
M Tiwary not out 9
Extras (lb 15, w 2, nb 1, pen 5) 23
Total (2 wickets; 91 overs) 226
Fall of wickets: 1-71, 2-201
Bowling: Verma 17-2-48-0 2-82, Hazare 16-4-42-1, Powar 25-4-68-0, Kulkarni 26-13-31-1, Thakkar 1-0-6-0, Shetty 5-2-10-0, Sharma 1-0-1-0
