Sourav Ganguly acknowledges cheers after his 50 at the Eden on Wednesday. Picture by by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Bengal captain Deep Dasgupta has been insisting since Day I of the ongoing Ranji Trophy match at the Eden that one should not describe it as a clash between Tamil Nadu and an individual. The progress of the match at the Eden, however, points to the obvious. If Bengal wish to gain anything, the only possibility ? however remote it now appears to be ? lies with Sourav Ganguly.

After two days of action, the visitors have already placed themselves in a position of strength and if Bengal don’t come up with an extraordinary performance in the third morning, the game would be as good as over for the hosts.

On Wednesday, Sourav’s 59 was the solitary statement of defiance in Bengal’s inexplicable way of drawing curtains on their first innings for 145. Tamil Nadu then finished Day II at 164 for three, already sitting pretty on the cushion of a 237-run lead.

Opener Sridharan Sriram (batting on 88) and Hemang Badani (unbeaten on 33) have already put on 88 runs in an unfinished fourth wicket stand and looked set for blocking any possible escape routes for Bengal.

This happened despite Sourav being served another caution (by the umpire K. Hariharan) for straying onto the pitch and yet picking up two crucial wickets to provide an early glimpse of hope. It’s regrettable that his teammates didn’t get enough motivation out of his efforts.

“There is no doubt that the scale is tilted in favour of Tamil Nadu and it’s going to be an uphill task for us. We need to make the most of the strip’s assistance tomorrow morning and restrict them somewhere to 350. The wicket looks still good for batting even in the final innings,” Deep later said.

If the aggressive gesture Shib Shankar Paul made to Aashish Kapoor (who accompanied Sriram as opener in Tamil Nadu’s second innings) after dismissing him, promised to quickly set Bengal’s fightback in order, Sourav made it more meaningful by picking up two more wickets in his back-to-back overs.

In his first over after tea, Hariharan cautioned him after the fourth delivery and his very next ball found an edge off captain S. Badrinath’s bat to be caught at slip. He then sent S. Sharath back to pavilion, though the ball looked to have pitched outside of the off-stump.

Sriram and Badani then steadied the ship with a brilliant blend of restraint and strokeplay as Bengal failed to keep the momentum going.

The duo’s show in the middle was in stark contrast to what the morning had in store for the hosts.

Bengal’s collapse was so sudden and shameful that it bordered on the inexplicable. Barring, of course, the former Team India captain.

Sourav and Avishek Jhunjhunwala resumed the innings on a cautious note, being aware of the fact that the Eden wicket is always dangerous to deal with in the morning. It, thus, became all the more pathetic that despite negotiating the first hour of the day without any casualty, Bengal caved in half-an-hour after lunch.In a rush of blood, Avishek invited his downfall trying to slash V. Yo Mahesh. Deep came and pushed off in two minutes as the next ball kept low, surprising the batsman. Laxmi Ratan Shukla ? who is in the team purely as a batsman ? denied the India under-19 bowler the hattrick, but perished soon to another poor shot selection.

Sourav was waging the lone fight and set for a bigger innings. His fifty came off 86 balls and a delectable drive around leg after that (which fetched him his ninth and final boundary) was indicative of a man in focus and fine nick.

Then came an M.R. Srinivas delivery and with it the end to a promise. Sourav attempted to jab the ball, which rose up not to his expectation and rolled down to the stumps.