On Day 4 of the ongoing first Test between India and Australia, Cheteshwara Pujara scored a resilient 71 off 204 ball after he had scored a hundred in the first innings.
On Day 4 of the ongoing first Test between India and Australia, Cheteshwara Pujara scored a resilient 71 off 204 ball after he had scored a hundred in the first innings.
Aussie spinner Nathan Lyon, who had missed two chances of dismissing Pujara earlier, finally got his man in the 88th over on Sunday. In two innings, Pujara scored 194 runs off 450 balls and this speaks volumes about the batter, who might have put India here in a chance to go for a victory considering the visitors have already earned a lead of over 250 now.
With a hundred and a fifty this Test, Pujara became only the third Indian to reach two fifty-plus scores in the same Test in Australia.
The other two Indians who had done that in the past were Mohinder Amarnath (Perth Test, 1977) and Rahul Dravid (Adelaide Test, 2003).
Pujara missed a second century this Test by 29 runs and hence missed out on a special record as well. Had he scored a hundred in the second innings as well, he would become only the fifth Indian to have scored twin centuries in a Test after Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.
En route to his 16th Test ton in India's first innings on Friday, Pujara also reached the 5,000-mark in Test cricket.
The No. 3 batsman touched the 5,000-mark in his 108th Test innings so that made him the joint-fifth Indian batsman to reach the landmark.
The fastest Indian to 5,000 Test runs still remains legendary Gavaskar who needed just 95 innings. Next in line were Virender Sehwag (99 innings), Sachin Tendulkar (103 innings) and Kohli (105 innings).
Pujara now along with Rahul Dravid is the joint-fifth Indian batsman to 5,000 Test runs. In the meantime, Pujara beat veterans like Hashim Amla and Ricky Ponting who reached 5,000 Test runs in 109 and 110 innings respectively.
Following Pujara's excellent knock of 123 off 246, Australian batsman Travis Head said that the Indian batsman set an example for others with his first-innings century and called Pujara's gritty knock a "blueprint" on this pitch.
Taking a leaf out of Pujara's book, Head scored a 167-ball 72 to steer Australia to 235 on the third day of first Test here Saturday.
Head helped score 44 runs in the rain-affected first session on Saturday as Australia just about managed to close the gap after Pujara had produced a superb 123 on the opening day to guide India to 250 in their first innings.
"The way Pujara played in the first innings was the blueprint for this wicket," Head, who was born in Adelaide, told reporters.
"He had a really good leaving game, good forward defence, and as the ball got softer, he got more runs. Knowing how hard the wicket can be with the ball moving and the new ball, he played really well."
(With agency inputs)
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