There was a lack of purpose and intensity during Delhi’s first innings as the visitors’ batting wrapped up inside two sessions on Thursday to ensure a huge first-innings lead for Uttar Pradesh. Delhi now stare at the very real possibility of suffering an innings defeat going into the fourth and final day.

Virat Kohli stood at 61 with seven boundaries, flinching in pain from the stitches threatening to open up under the gloves as he flashed an array of cover-drives and pull shots in Delhi’s second essay, following on. Delhi are 104 for 2 in their second innings, with Shikhar Dhawan absent due to injury, and are still 230 runs away from the 334 needed to make Uttar Pradesh bat again.

Aakash Chopra’s habit of fiddling with the ball moving away put a swift end to both his innings, while Gaurav Chabbra was guilty of rocking back on the backfoot for a pull and jabbing outside off on the frontfoot on both occasions when it wasn’t prescribed.

UP seamers kept attacking the off-stump line, altering their length. RP Singh bowled tight, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was persistent while Praveen Kumar swung the ball both ways, forcing the batsmen to play the maximum deliveries and giving themselves more chances of dismissing them.

Piyush Chawla was hired after visible signs of dust on the wicket and he delivered three punches in the middle. Shivakant Shukla highlighted quick reflexes at short-leg, taking two catches to send back Punit Bisht and Abhishek Sharma, and held a third at short mid-wicket to break a fighting eighth-wicket partnership of Pradeep Sangwan and Sumit Narwal.

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