Pujara avoids Rabada’s verbal delivery
KG beginning to punch his weight
Pune, Oct. 10: South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada did try to disturb Cheteshwar Pujara’s concentration on the opening day of the second Test, but tactic hardly bothered the senior India batsman as he was “in his own zone”.
Rabada did say a few words to Pujara after dismissing him for 58, perhaps letting a bit of his frustration out as he was unlucky not to get him out on zero due to a dropped catch.
Asked what exactly Rabada said, Pujara replied: “I can’t remember what he said. But he (Rabada) is someone who always likes to say something to the batsmen.
“As a batsman, I always know that he (Rabada) will try to disturb my concentration, not just him but any bowler, who passes a comment, so I try and avoid (listening to) what they say,” he said.
“If you are in your zone, you hardly hear what they are trying to say as you are too much focussed on what you want to do as batsman,” Pujara said. — PTI Pune, Oct. 10: Kagiso Rabada is slowly showing signs of getting his mojo back as indicated by his spell in the post lunch session, observed South Africa’s bowling coach Vincent Barnes.
Rabada was the only Proteas bowler, who made some kind of impact with figures of 3 for 48 in India’s 273 for 3 on the first day of the second Test.
“It was fantastic to see him bowl, especially, the spell after lunch. I thought he bowled well in Vizag (Visakhapatnam) as well. Today, there were a lot of signs that he is getting to the top,” Barnes said.
In fact, patience is the key for fast bowlers on this track as Rabada showed by getting Cheteshwar Pujara’s wicket with persistence. “Our focus on this tour is to bowl to our strengths. The plan was to be patient on a wicket that was going to give us assistance in the morning,” Barnes said.
“We had to keep bowling in the right areas and they would make mistakes. Pujara at one stage looked set and KG (Rabada) bowled in the right area and got the wicket,” he said.
But he did admit that in the morning session with a bit of luck (Pujara was dropped on zero), South Africa’s new ball bowlers could have picked a couple of more wickets. “When we looked at the conditions this morning, the window for fast bowlers was a lot longer than compared to Visakhapatnam. I thought that we bowled quite well this morning,” he said.