Sourav Ganguly's valiant 88 went in vain as Bengal crashed to a 222-run defeat against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match in Kolkata on Friday.
Resuming at 109-3, the Bengal second innings folded for 274, 53 minutes into the post-lunch session as young Tamil Nadu pacer R Jesuraj stole the show with a haul of 6 for 76 he finished with match figures of 11-116 -- on the fourth and last day of the match at the Eden Gardens.
Bengal, who occupied second place before the Tamil Nadu fixture, remain on nine points after six outings. Tamil Nadu culled four points by virtue of the outright victory to boost their tally to nine from six games.
Chasing 497 for victory, Bengal's hopes on the last day hinged around Ganguly, who lost his overnight partner Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (38) to the ninth ball of the morning.
Rohan Gavaskar (9) departed soon after, caught by R Satish of Jesuraj, thus reducing Bengal to 128-5.
Then followed a 91-run sixth wicket stand between Ganguly and Deep Dasgupta (47; 96b, 152 mins, 6x4) that briefly raised hopes of a Bengal fightback.
Ganguly played some vintage shots, mostly in the off side, as he seemed to be going from strength to strength.
But veteran spinner Ashish Kapoor played spoilsport as he induced Ganguly, who had hit a boundary off the previous ball, to come out of the crease and go for a sweep. The batsman missed the line and Dinesh Karthik did the rest.
The former Indian skipper faced 129 balls during a 194-minute stay in the middle, squandering 13 boundaries and a six off Kapoor.
This effectively sealed Bengal's fate. And despite brief resistance from Dasgupta and Ranadeb Bose (17), who added 38 runs for the eighth wicket, it was only a matter of time before it was curtains for the hosts.
Scorecard
Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 218
Bengal (1st innings): 145
Tamil Nadu (2nd innings): 423/7 decl
Bengal (2nd innings): (overnight 109/3)
A Das c K Vasudevadas b R Jasuraj 1
Subhojit Paul c S Badrinath b R Jesuraj 0
A Jhunjhunwala b M R Shrinivas 38
S Lahiri c V Yo Mahesh b R Jesuraj 39
S Ganguly st. D Karthik b A Kapoor 88
R Gavaskar c R Satish b R Jesuraj 9
D Dasgupta c D Karthik b R Jesuraj 47
L R Shukla lbw A Kapoor 11
R Bose c Y Mahesh b A Kapoor 17
S S Paul not out 1
A Dinda b R Jesuraj 0
Extras: (b-1, lb-9, nb-12, w-1) 23
Total: (all out in 68.1 overs) 274
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-10, 3-51, 4-115, 5-128, 6-219, 7-236, 8-272, 9-274.
Bowling: R Jesuraj 21.1-3-76-6 M R Shrinivas 18-1-74-1, R Satish 8-2-20-0, V Yo Mahesh 8-1-50-0, A Kapoor 13-4-44-3.
