Cheteshwar Pujara’s concentration was immense in his stay of six hours and 52 minutes at the crease.
Australia continued to press hard against India for that morale-boosting first-innings lead. But India’s No. 3 batsman, Cheteshwar Pujara batted the entire day on not-so-easy conditions to stay undefeated on 130 at Day 3 stumps of the third and penultimate Test of the season against Australia here on Saturday.
Virat Kohli’s India finished the day at 360/6, still trailing by 91 runs but more importantly for the hosts, Pujara is batting gloriously with his second Test century against Australia, scoring 120 runs all day to add to his overnight 10 not out. Pujara’s concentration was immense in his stay of six hours and 52 minutes at the crease.
Pujara endured fiery spells from Josh Hazlewood and Patrick Cummins, particularly the latter, but did not give the opposition any inch. Cummins was easily the visitors’ best bowler, using his bouncer effectively and even taking wickets off it as the pitch stayed hard and cracks yet to open.
Cummins worked up pace on a third day’s pitch to finish with 4/59 in 25 overs at stumps while the spinners Nathan Lyon and O’Keefe bowled without much success.
In fact, Lyon, following his career-best 8/50 in the first innings of Bengaluru, Lyon has sent down 62 overs without any wicket for 179 runs since, while O’Keefe, after his 12-wicket haul in the first Test in Pune managed to take only four wickets in 85.1 overs and giving away 193 runs since then.
Post tea, just when the last recognised batting pair of Pujara and Karun Nair seemed to give the Aussie bowlers a fightback, Nair fell to a beautiful inswinging delivery from Josh Hazlewood through bat and pad on way to uprooting the stumps for an individual score of 23.
Next man in Ravichandran Ashwin was determined to make up for his recent run of poor scores with the bat. He lasted the same time as that of Kohli earlier in the day – 37 minutes – but faced one less delivery than the skipper. He was done in by a Cummins bouncer, kissing his glove on way to Wade’s gloves. After New Zealand umpire Chris Gaffaney adjudged not out, Smith went immediately for the ‘T’ sign with the replays showing faint spikes as the ball passed the glove. This left Ashwin disappointed as he thought there was no glove to it.
This brought together Pujara and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, who only in January shared 316 unbroken for the fifth wicket in a winning cause for Rest of India against Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat. Saha took a special liking to O’Keefe, who tried to exploit the rough outside the right-hander’s leg-stump. Saha swept, paddle-swept and stepped out to deposit O’Keefe for fours while Pujara continued his usual manner of playing along the ground, driving handsomely.
Brief scores: At stumps: Australia 451 vs India 360/6 in 130 overs (C Pujara 130*, W Saha 18*)
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