Ranadeb Bose produced another valuable seam bowling performance for Bengal, but Mumbai were in box seat after setting the visitors a daunting target of 472 in the Ranji Trophy cricket final in Mumbai on Sunday.

With their top and lower order batsmen coming up with valuable knocks, 36-time champions Mumbai posted 294 in their second knock on the third day of the five-day contest at the Wankhede stadium.

First innings centurion Wasim Jaffer hit another composed 53 and his efforts were consolidated by Sachin Tendulkar (43), captain Amol Muzumdar (37) and Abhishek Nair (34).

Mumbai then struck twice to reduce Bengal to 98 for two at stumps.

Skipper Deep Dasgupta (43) and Manoj Tiwary (19) were the not out batsmen at close.

Bose, the season's leading wicket-taker, once again led the Bengal attack with 5-71 and was well supported by Sourav Sarkar (3-54).

Tendulkar's innings of 43, which contained seven boundaries, was the feature of the morning session which saw Mumbai lose three wickets.

Muzumdar and Nair then shared a 69-run stand for the sixth wicket.

Bengal then made a purposeful start.

With the pitch being relatively eased out and with the bounce remaining true, batting was much easier in the afternoon and openers Dasgupta and Arindam Das safely negotiated the new ball.

The breakthrough finally came in the 15th over with first change Wilkin Mota enticing Arindam into an uppish shot, which was superbly taken by Wasim Jaffer at gully.

The introduction of Ramesh Powar, which one felt was slightly delayed, paid immediate dividends when the off-spinner dismissed Abhishek Jhunjhunwala with his very first ball. The Bengal score read 65 for 2 at that stage.

Dasgupta and the talented Tewari played out the remaining overs with assurance.

Bose, who took his season's wicket tally to 57, mentioned that Bengal will have to play really well in order to turn things around.

"We need to play good cricket and bat really well, anything is possible, let's see how things go from here," he said after the match.

He singled out the wicket of Jaffer as a special one among his five wickets especially since the opener had scored a century in the first innings.