Rather than the trophy, the defending champions need to ensure they keep their place in the Elite division, now that they’re hanging at seventh position in the eight-team Group A.

After falling in four matches, Delhi need to stand up in the fifth, sixth and seventh games — create a scenario like Mumbai had two seasons ago, when they won three back-to-back games to lift the Ranji Trophy — all this just to get an entry into the quarter-finals.

Trinity failing

Before the season, the talk around Delhi was about the lack of bowling quality needed to run through a side. But the trio of Sumit Narhwal, Parvinder Awana and Pradeep Sangwan have managed to do a reasonable job. Delhi’s major concern, surprisingly, has been the inability to post big scores this season. The lack of contribution from the past, present and future captains of the team has hurt Delhi — Mithun Manhas, Aakash Chopra and Shikhar Dhawan just haven’t done enough.

Though all three have shown signs of form, none has managed to perform consistently. Unlike other teams, the lack of second-innings stints hasn’t helped renew their confidence. Wednesday wasn’t any different as Gujarat, building on their overnight score of 76/0, with the first-innings lead in hand, batted through the last day before the mandatory close.

Little interest

There were some interesting phases, like when the Delhi bowlers sent back Nilesh Modi and Priyank Panchal early, the senior Patels in Gujarat side — skipper Parthiv and deputy Niraj — hung on till lunch.

Niraj fell five short of his 50, caught and bowled by Chetnya Nanda, but Parthiv crossed the milestone before edging one from Narhwal after Delhi claimed the second new ball. Bhavik Thaker and Ishwar Chaudhary, took Gujarat for 259/6 in 104 overs.

Chopra has handled captaincy well so far. But with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir unavailable because of national duty, he needs to lead from the front with his bat as well, which brings us back to where it started — runs.

Meanwhile, match referee Sunil Gudge found Narhwal guilty of showing dissent after his dismissal, under clause 1.7 of the players’ code, but let him off with a warning.