On Wednesday, it was Bengal turned on the style in the second half as they recovered from a goal down to thrash Maharashtra 5-1 in their Santosh Trophy Group A match at the Howrah Stadium. Meanwhile in the day’s other game, Manipur took the lead riding Nganbam Naocha’s goal in the 25th minute but Vivek Rana canceled it out in the 65th minute to hand Chandigarh a point.

Jiten Murmu put the Bengal ahead in 62th minutes. Bidyashagar Singh then struck twice in a span of three minutes and substitute Rajon Barman completed the rout a minute before the end of regulation time. Bengal moved up to six points with their second win. Earlier, the hosts made a confident start, but it was Maharashtra who took the lead in the eighth minute through a debatable goal. Kiran Pandhare chipped a free-kick, taking Bengal players by surprise. Trailing by Leander Dharmai’s goal at halftime, the defending champions leveled the issue in 55th minute through Monotosh Chakladar.

The 32-time champions maintained their domination with Tirthankar Sarkar at the heart of most of Bengal attacks. However, lack of enterprise in the attacking third and poor finishing meant Ranjan Chowdhury's men went into the break 0-1 down. Sumit Das missed two sitters including a simple tap-in into an open net.

Bengal will next take on Chandigarh on March 25 while Manipur will lock horns with Kerala on March 23.