The offer started at Rs 75 an hour, quickly went up to Rs 100, and then to Rs 300. Rajat Bhatia and Virat Kohli were trying to rope in team mates for some extra batting practice, but none of the bowlers were in the mood. The Madhav Rao Scindia ground in Rajkot, and the home side Saurashtra, have earned a reputation for putting up big scores, and the bowlers might have enough hard work coming up over the next few days in their Ranji Trophy elite match starting on Friday.

Delhi need an outright victory to keep their quarter-final hopes alive, while a draw will be enough for Saurashtra to go through to the knock-out stage. Saurashtra’s form at home this season, coupled with Delhi’s own batting woes, means Aakash Chopra’s side have an uphill climb.

Cheteshwar Pujara is the rock around whom Saurashtra’s success this season has been built. But they’re no one-man army, as they’ve racked up 19 points with crucial contributions coming from openers Chirag Pathak and Bhushan Chauhan, with Jaydev Shah and Ravinder Jadeja holding the middle-order together. Off-spinner Kamlesh Makvana, veteran Sandeep Jobanputra, and new left-arm seamer Balkrishna Jadeja have all played their part.

Best chance

Under the circumstances, the best Chopra can hope for is to win the toss and score big. For that to happen, though, they need some serious help from the law of averages. Chopra has already lost three tosses, while Sehwag lost the last one to make it four in a row. And as far as scoring big goes, here’s a statistic that gives a clearer picture of Delhi’s batting problems — Pujara alone has racked up more runs than Delhi’s top five put together.

... contd.