Just as his lower-order pair returned to stave off the Delhi bowlers after lunch on Tuesday, Gujarat head coach Monty Desai had already turned his focus away from the play. Mid-session, he was in the nets with young Vedant Trivedi, who had cracked a century on debut last week and then failed here on a dormant strip.

The result at Air Force Ground B was a foregone conclusion even as Desai’s trusted lieutenants, skipper Chintan Gaja and Manan Hingrajia, walked out in the morning, having neutralised the hosts with a stern partnership the previous evening. From their overnight 363/5 they still needed 286 for the decisive first-innings lead on day four of this second-round Ranji Trophy match. Hingrajia’s resistance broke within the first 45 minutes, after nearly eight hours at the crease, and Gaja fell on 82, short of his maiden hundred, a little later.…