Sourasish Lahiri, on way to his century, on Friday. A Telegraph picture

New Delhi: Nightwatchman Sourasish Lahiri displayed his batting skills with a fine century (108) as Bengal posted an imposing 431 in their first innings, on Day Two of the Group B Ranji Trophy match against Services, at the Palam Ground, on Friday.

In reply, Services were 39 for no loss at stumps. Their openers — Pratik Desai (24 batting) and Anshul Gupta (15 batting) — handled the Bengal seamers well in the 11 overs they batted, evoking a decent bit of confidence to take the fight to the rival camp when action resumes on Saturday. After Arindam Das’ watchful knock on the opening day, it was Sourasish’s turn to hog the limelight. Promoted in the batting order to see through the last couple of overs on Thursday, Sourasish batted for almost the entire second day before being dismissed in the post tea session.

Though never in a hurry, Sourasish was always quick to punish the poor deliveries and scored his career’s second first-class century off 212 balls, with the help of 10 boundaries. Barring the sole occasion when he was dropped at mid-wicket on 96, by Rahul Kanojia, off the bowling of Koteshwar Rao, Sourasish’s 306-minute vigil was a flawless affair.

However, despite putting up a 400-plus total, Bengal cannot breathe easy when it comes to taking the first innings lead and ensure themselves three points. The wicket has little to offer to the bowlers, though it doesn’t look to help stroke-makers as well.

All said and done, considering they batted for 166.2 overs, Bengal could have added another 30 to 40 runs in that period. If the inability to accelerate the scoring was a problem, the reason behind it was the lack of big partnerships on Friday.

Once Arindam (165) departed, after adding 55 runs for the fourth wicket with Sourasish, there was no other big partnership.

Skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla (28) had again got himself in, but was caught behind off a rising ball from Suraj Yadav.

Both Anustup Majumdar and Sandipan Das played 45 balls each, but couldn’t come up with a major contribution.

Arindam, adding 26 more to his overnight score, was bowled by a fine delivery from Koteshwar, who beat him with a sudden turn. Arindam stayed at the wicket for 440 minutes, facing 306 deliveries.

He hit 14 fours and a six. “Whenever we planned to accelerate, we lost a wicket,” admitted Bengal coach Ashok Malhotra. But I am not complaining. 431 is a good score. Sourasish played a gem of an innings and because of his batting we still hold the initiative.”

Off-spinner Koteshwar turned out to be the most successful bowler for Services, taking four wickets for 83 runs. Overall, Services did not do a great job at all as a fielding unit. They dropped catches at crucial junctures and misfielded on several occasions.