Pujara stands tall among ruins
HARD WORK As wickets tumbled, the India No 3 ground it out leaving deliveries outside off, showing patience
the age of instant gratification provided in abundance by T20, Cheteshwar Pujara underscored the importance of perseverance. In conditions difficult for batting in the first Test against Sri Lanka on Friday, Pujara was the silver lining in an India performance clouded by lack of conviction.
He was the anchor without which India would have disintegrated in a manner that would bode ill ahead of the arduous tour of South Africa. This in a Test with pauses longer than passages of play; only 165 minutes of cricket has been possible in two days at Eden Gardens.
As wickets tumbled, Pujara, 29, ground it out showing the kind of will that has fetched him 12 first-class double-centuries, the maximum by an Indian. It wasn’t pretty but then long ago Pujara had traded that for patience which he has in spades.
“He is a world class player, one who is reaping the benefits of playing county cricket,” said Sri Lanka head coach Nic Pothas, referring to Pujara’s time at Nottinghamshire this year.
In conditions tougher than Headingley in 2002, according to India’s fielding coach R Sridhar, who was quoting assistant-coach Sanjay Bangar, Pujara dug in and seemed determined to forget balls that got the better of him. Providing the context was Bangar’s 296ball 68 in Headingley.
Pujara welcomed Dasun Shanaka with boundaries on the offside to over pitched deliveries. Viewed in conjunction with Ajinkya Rahane’s square-drive off Suranga Lakmal, it seemed Day 1 once more was unlikely to be replayed. But then Shanaka got Rahane. Where Rahane should have taken a leaf out of Pujara’s batting, he tried to drive one that nibbled slightly off the wicket and keeper Niroshan Dickwella did the rest.
As the soupy light got duller, necessitating floodlights being
switched on in the first and only session possible before rain took over, Lakmal was replaced by Lahiru Gamage.
Unlike on Thursday, Gamage put more shoulder into his second spell. The second ball of his eighth over reared sharply off good length and hit R Ashwin on the right thumb. Ashwin went soon after, trying to slash Shanaka.
Pujara kept leaving deliveries, tucking in his bat but never missed a scoring opportunity. Tending to bowl full, Shanaka gave him two such deliveries in his innings’ 48th and 50th balls. When Shanaka overpitched again, it was the 63rd delivery Pujara had faced and again it was off-driven for four. When the next boundary came -- similar shot to a similar delivery — Pujara’s innings was 80 balls old.
Dimuth Karunaratne sent a loosener and Pujara smacked him again through the off. The next over, Karunaratne’s military medium came invitingly in and Pujara pulled for four.
“With so much of lateral movement, the plan was to play as close to your body. What stood out was most of his (Pujara) drives were to the right of mid-off. He had a very narrow V. This was one of the best 47 runs from Pujara in the last two or three years,” said R Sridhar, India’s fielding coach.
KOLKATA:In