Sourav Ganguly and Ashok Dinda, on Monday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: For a side fighting to stave off relegation, Manoj Tiwary’s century in the one-dayer against the West Indies, in Chennai on Sunday, has come as a welcome relief.

For Bengal, it’s not been about lack of individual performances this season. Be it Tiwary’s double century against Madhya Pradesh, Sourav Ganguly’s century versus Haryana or Ashok Dinda’s 12-wicket match-haul against the same opponents, there have been several performances of note.

That Bengal are still reeling at the bottom of group B (five points from four matches) in the Super League is mainly because they have failed to gel as a team.

Deep Dasgupta, the chairman of the selection committee, put it down well. “For Bengal cricket, it’s not been about individual brilliance, but getting things together… Hopefully, we’ll do well…”

Tiwary, who reached the city on Monday morning, skipped practice but his teammates are seeking inspiration and hoping his presence can turn their fortunes around.

“Tiwary’s century is an advantage for the side… It’s a good sign for the team,” Sourav Ganguly, who will be leading against Delhi despite Tiwary’s presence, said.

Bengal need to log full points from their two remaining matches and Sourav is aware of the job in hand. “We have to win now… The last three matches haven’t been good for us… But I’m confident of avoiding relegation,” Sourav said.

Like the last match against Tamil Nadu, the Eden wicket earmarked for the match has a fair sprinkling of grass. Bengal are hoping that the Dindas and Ranadeb Boses have enough firepower left to bamboozle Delhi.

However, it wouldn’t be wise to underestimate the presence of one Ashish Nehra in the Delhi side. The left-arm pacer, who joined the side on Monday evening, still has the capability to trouble the Bengal batting. After all, Yo Mahesh and Laxmipathi Balaji had ran through the Bengal batting on a similar surface.

Delhi, who have 10 points from five games, haven’t had a good season and will be looking to secure their knockout berth.

Bengal will make two changes to the squad with Subhomoy Das and Manoj Tiwary replacing the injured Rohan Banerjee and Avishek Jhunjhunwala. Not just batting and bowling, their fielding, too, has been shoddy.

Bengal are learnt to have hired the services of a psychologist in a bid to lift the team morale. It remains to be seen how much of a difference he can bring about in their fortunes in this perform or perish clash.

TEAMS

Bengal (likely): Subhomoy Das, Arindam Das, Writam Porel, Manoj Tiwary, Sourav Ganguly, Sreevats Goswami, Eklakh Ahmed, Iresh Saxena, Ranadeb Bose, Shami Ahmed, Ashok Dinda.

Delhi (from): Shikhar Dhawan, Unmukt Chand, Ankur Julka, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Yogesh Nagar, Puneet Bisht, Ashish Nehra, Parvinder Awana, Vikas Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan, Manoj Chauhan, Pawan Negi, Kuldeep Rawat, Mayank Tehlan.

Umpires: Amish Saheba, Ravi Subramanium.

Match Referee: Col. Chinmaya Sharma.

Match starts: 9.15 a.m.