Calcutta: Bengal pacer Ashok Dinda is known as someone who wears his heart on his sleeve. He is not someone who will never mince his words.

But after Tuesday's 21-run defeat to Baroda in Lahli, he prefers to remain quiet. Already into controversy following a tiff with Pragyan Ojha during a practice session, Dinda wants no more of it. Ask him about the reason behind Bengal's defeat, he just doesn't want to pinpoint anything.

"Look, I don't want to get dragged into controversy yet again, especially at this juncture of our Ranji campaign. So, I just don't want to point any particular thing out as the reason why we lost... Be it pitch or whatever," Dinda said from Lahli on Tuesday.

"But yes, we bowlers did the job expected of us and our batsmen tried their best under the given conditions. It's disappointing that we couldn't win this match.

"It's all part and parcel of the game and you can call this as a collective failure. But we still believe we can make the knock-outs."

Individually, though, Dinda again had success with the ball, finishing with eight wickets in the match. "I'm trying my best to snare as many wickets as possible and take the team to a strong position. That's the job I'm expected to do and I'll try to do so every time I take the field... That's it," he said.

Dinda also showered praise on Mukesh Kumar, who scalped five wickets in Baroda's second innings after a comeback from injury-forced break. "Mukesh has done extremely well in his comeback game. It's not the first time he's doing it. Even in the previous season, he made an impression with his bowling. So, we always had the faith in him."

Cricket Association of Bengal president Sourav Ganguly feels it's too early to ring the alarm bells. "It's just one match that the team has lost. There are still three more and I believe the guys will bounce back. It's a young team after all," Sourav said on the CAB premises. "If the team does well in the coming matches versus Mumbai and Gujarat and wins one of the two, it can make the knock-out stage. Winning any of the two matches will make things easier."

Sourav, however, reminded that it's of no use blaming the pitch. "Well, it was the same for both the teams. So, no point in blaming the pitch," he said.

While Sourav remains positive on one hand, the selection committee is seriously worried about Bengal's batting.

"We know batting is the main worry, but there are no quality (batsmen) in the Bengal reserve bench. Even if we think of reinforcements or changes, there's no proper alternative... No back-up... It's a very tough situation," said one selector.