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.

Delhi’s bowling, though many shades better than their batting, has been too rigid, and the decision to leave out specialist off-spinner Narinder Singh, even when Saurashtra have five left-handers in their ranks, could turn out to be crucial. The 3-1 bowling combination of Pradeep Sangwan, Sumit Narhwal and Parvinder Awana, with leg-spinner Chetnya Nanda, seems fixed and there’s been little support from Bhatia this season with the ball. Yogesh Nagar is likely to get the nod ahead of Gaurav Chabbra for a place in the XI, not just for his batting but also for his off-spinning abilities.

When Saurashtra played Delhi here two years ago, the hosts had won and picked up the bonus point — a victory that they openly admit was a big turning point for them. Battling relegation, they had emerged stronger and gone all the way to the semis last year.

Delhi, though, have some positives to look back on as well. The last time Chopra and Mithun Manhas played on this ground, both got unbeaten double-hundreds in a Duleep Trophy tie. They need an encore, for nothing less than five points will do.