Command & conquer: The Assam team celebrates the fall of a Tripura wicket at MBB stadium in Agartala on Tuesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Agartala, Nov. 11: Fancied Assam today conceded a 20-run first innings lead to hosts Tripura, but salvaged considerable advantage by scalping five Tripura wickets at the expense of only 96 runs to lay the foundation of a potential victory on the second day of the four-day Ranji Torphy plate league tie under way here.

Resuming on an overnight 45 for two, the Assam batsmen failed to cope up with the disciplined bowling of the Tripura bowlers, who maintained a tight line and length to deny the visitors much leeway.

It was only Swarupam Purkaystha who scored a breezy 77 to give his team total some respectability. Deepak Sharma chipped in with a hard-earned 46.

Former international outstation recruit Jacob Martin contributed just 20 as the visitors’ first innings wound up at 195 — 20 runs short of Tripura’s first innings total of 215.

Assam skipper Rashmi Ranjan Parida cut a sorry figure, sweeping at a delivery outside the off-stump to be out for a duck.

Four Tripura bowlers, Vineet Jain, Timir Chanda, Jayanta Debnath and Abhijeet De, shared the spoils, claiming two wickets apiece while skipper Tushar Saha got all-rounder Dhiraj Goswami caught by Rajesh Banik for only eight runs.

Assam tailender Ranjit Malli was run out while going for a single that was never there for the taking.

Hosts Tripura started their second innings in the post-lunch session disastrously with opener Sourav Dubey falling to Assam paceman Malli, caught behind the wicket.

Tripura never really recovered from the initial blow as wickets continued to fall with Assam bowlers showing their mettle, taking advantage of a light breeze helping the swing bowlers both ways.

Among the feared Tripura batsmen, Rajiv Saha topscored with 23 while Subal Chowdhury made a plucky 22.

At the end of the day, Nishit Shetty (15) and Abhijit Dey remained unbeaten at the crease, even though the home team had the mortification of seeing their night watchman Jayanta Debnath throwing away his wicket while attempting a non-existent single to an accurate throw off Dhiraj Goswami from silly mid-on.

Both the teams share equal chances of wining the match, depending on their performance in tomorrow’s first session.

“If we can take the lead to over 200, Assam will be in dire straits because, as I understand, batting on this track in the fourth innings will be quite tough and we have the bowlers to exploit the situation,” said Tripura coach Samir Dighe.