Bhavin Thakkar struck his maiden Ranji Trophy ton as Mumbai set themselves up for a befitting response to Bengal's massive first innings score on the third day of the Elite group 'B' cricket match in Kolkata on Sunday.

Replying to Bengal's 578/7 declared, Mumbai reached 206/2 at stumps, with Thakkar unconquered on a well-made 108 at the Eden Gardens.

The trend was similar to the first two days with the pitch offering no devil and the batsmen encountering little difficulty in culling 244 runs as only three wickets fell during the 90 overs sent down.

Resuming at of 540/6, Bengal lost Sourasish Lahiri (14) in the fifth over of the morning while Manoj Tiwary completed his maiden first class double hundred with an inside edge of pacer Swapnil Hazare that went to the fine leg ropes.

The youngster, who eclipsed Arun Lal's 189 to emerge as the individual highest scorer for Bengal against Mumbai, completed his double hundred off 327 balls after a 445-minute stay in the middle and struck 25 boundaries besides a six. Bengal captain Deep Dasgupta effected the declaration 33 minutes into the morning session to bring the curtains down on the home side's first innings spanning 770 minutes.

Mumbai got off to a disastrous start, losing opener Sahil Kukreja in the first over of the innings.

But Thakkar. making a comeback to the side, rallied with Vinayak Mane to deny Bengal a wicket for almost 55 overs, during a 133-run partnership. Mane scored a patient 47 from 166 balls even as Thakkar rose to the occassion and thwarted the Bengal attack.

The 24-year-old was unbeaten on 108 off 251 balls while captain Muzumdar was 30 not out at the end of the third day.

Mumbai need another 373 runs to take the first-innings lead.

Scorecard

Bengal (1st innings) (540/6 overnight)
A Das lbw b Hazare 26
A Chakrabarty c & b Kulkarni 81
A Jhunjhunwala c Mumzumdar b Kulkarni 114
M Tiwary not out 210
R Gavaskar run out 20
D Dasgupta c Samant b Powar 8
L R Shukla run out 65
S Lahiri c Samant b Verma 14
S S Singh not out 0
Extras (Pen-5, b-6, lb-22, nb-2, w-5) 40
Total (For 7 wkts, 188 overs decl) 578
Fall of wickets: 1/71, 2/201, 3/300, 4/345, 5/361, 6/532, 7/559.

Bowling: Verma 35-6-104-1, Hazare 36-5-122-1, Powar 47-7-136-1, Kulkarni 47-14-100-2, Thakkar 1-0-6-0, Shetty 11-3-29-0, Sharma 9-0-35-0, Muzumdar 1-0-9-0, Mane 1-0-4-0.

Mumbai 1st innings
S Kukreja c Arindam Das b Bose 0
V Mane lbw b Tiwary 47
B Thakkar not out 108
A Muzumdar not out 30
Extras (lb 4, w 1, nb 16) 21     
Total (2 wickets; 81 overs) 206     

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-133

Bowling: Bose 16 6 40 1, Dinda 12 0 51 0, Shukla 4 1 6 0, Lahiri 23 6 56 0, Singh 18 4 34 0, Tiwary 6 2 10 1, Gavaskar 1 0 1 0, Jhunjhunwala 1 0 4 0