Batting with a borrowed pair of pads from Karan Goel, his friend in the Punjab ranks, Dhawan hardly allowed the ball hit the soft rexin, using the willow instead to great effect, reaching his half-century off just 68 balls with eight boundaries. Chopra took 30 extra deliveries to reach that mark.

Meanwhile, bowling on the surface has been all about optimism on a pitch that’s offered nothing.

That Delhi can’t relax yet as they canter towards a first-innings lead is largely because of their generosity in the field — Punjab batsman Ankur Kakkar was dropped on 52 by Punit Bisht off Nehra, and the sixth-wicket pair added 102 runs to swell the total. The wicket-keeper erred on another occasion, this time off Amit Bhandari, to hand out a reprieve to Uday Kaul off the second ball after lunch.

Uday and younger brother Siddharth Kaul frustrated Delhi bowlers further to take Punjab past 300. The tail wagged more than the home side would’ve liked, before the innings was cut on the brink of the psychological 400-run mark.

The Delhi seamers had bowled with a lot of purpose: Nehra was relentless, Bhandari proved tricky with subtle movement off the deck, but it was Pradeep Sangwan who walked away with the bulk of the wickets. But overall, Delhi’s overuse of the short ball to disguise fuller-length deliveries didn’t camouflage the lack of variations.

Punjab’s bowling has lacked the bite to penetrate or the discipline to contain so far — and with an entire range of strokemakers waiting in the dressing room, the visitors have to come up with ideas to boost their purchasing power to bargain for wickets.