Bengal players celebrate the dismissal of S. Sriram at the Eden on Tuesday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: The controversy surrounding Sourav Ganguly may have hogged the limelight on Day I of the Bengal-Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match at the Eden on Monday, but the home team is desperately depending on him to help them achieve something meaningful out of the ongoing encounter.

The good work of skittling the visitors out for 218 now appears to be in danger of being neutralised as Bengal finished the day at 32 for three. Sourav ? who took three for 62 before being debarred from bowling ? was batting on 8, along with Avishek Jhunjhunwala (16). The former Team India captain can’t find any better stage than this to prove a point or two after being asked to play the match by the Board before joining Rahul Dravid & Co. in Pakistan.

Arindam Das and debutant Subhajit Paul complicated the situation for Bengal in no time when poor shot selection led to their downfall.

Arindam (0) completely misjudged the line of a R. Jesuraj delivery in the very first over and found his off-stump uprooted. Next to go was Subhajit (3) who looked bamboozled by Jesuraj’s late swing.

Former Bengal captain Rohan Gavaskar (0) then made a guest appearance, chasing a wide delivery of the Tamil Nadu pacer. It was 20 for three and Sourashish Lahiri was already padded up to go as the nightwatchman.

Perhaps realising the gravity of the situation, Sourav made a bold entry. He survived a strong leg-before appeal by Jesuraj, but otherwise looked composed and safely steered Bengal through the day without any further hiccup.

“It’s not the kind of situation we wanted to have at the end of the day. But we have still some in-form batsmen to come, like myself, Laxmi (Ratan Shukla)? Sourashish can also bat. Tomorrow, our target will be to get past 218,” Bengal captain Deep Dasgupta said after the first day’s play.

Both Deep and Tamil Nadu coach B. Arun maintained that the wicket (despite a considerable amount of grass on it being cut in the morning) is a “perfectly sporting one.”

“It should be a model wicket in the country,” Arun said. The Bengal wicketkeeper echoed the same, saying that “it’s a good wicket to bat on once you settle in the middle.”

Luck favoured Deep in the morning when the coin was spun in his favour and he didn’t hesitate a second in sending Tamil Nadu in.

Ranadeb Bose provided the early breakthrough, clean bowling K. Vasudevadas. But it was Sourav who did the damage with a resounding effect. Coming as a first-change bowler from the High Court end, he was bowling close to the stump and quite happy in landing the ball on the seam and let it move laterally with the assistance of early morning wind and moisture.

Both former India opener S. Sriram and his captain S. Badrinath were unable to negotiate with his swing and returned to the pavilion. It was also the spell from Sourav when the umpire B.S. Bhatti cautioned him twice for straying on to the pitch.

Tamil Nadu went into lunch with 93 for four. Hemang Badani (67) and R. Satish (22) showed signs of recovery. They added 48 runs till Sourav came back, this time from the pavilion end, and found the latter plumb in front of wicket.

In the last ball of the same over, Sourav’s outswinger found nick off new batsman Dinesh Karthik’s bat, but Deep failed to latch on to the catch. Sourav eventful bowling returned him three wickets for 62 in 15.5 overs.The Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper (22) survived a few scares off Asok Dinda from the other end before perishing to the same.

Sourashish then picked up the crucial wicket of Badani (his innings lasted 107 balls, and contained 10 boundaries), Subhojit holding on to a sharp catch at silly point.

Ranadeb then lopped off the tail in space of four balls to return the figures of three for 43.