INDvENG
Pujara steers India to narrow England's first innings lead in Headingley Test
Leeds/IBNS: Cheteshwar Pujara preferred to let his bat respond to the massive criticism that he had attracted of late through his poor form, by playing the anchor's role in India's fight back in the third Test against England at Headingley here Friday.
Pujara, who has grown more famous due to his poor strike rate in the recent past, went for some unusual shots during his innings of unbeaten 91 which took 180 balls.
More importantly, the man, who was once compared to The Wall Rahul Dravid, scored 60 of 91 runs through boundaries at a strike rate of little over 50.
Though Pujara seemed satisfied at stumps on day three, India have a long way to go in the second innings as they are still trailing England by 139 runs.
When the umpires called off the day's play due to poor light, India's second innings scoreboard read 215/2 in reply to England's first innings total of 432.
Besides Pujara, credit is also due to Rohit Sharma who scored 59 off 156 balls before falling prey to Ollie Robinson.
When Pujara will come out to bat Saturday with an eye on his much-awaited hundred, he will be accompanied by skipper Virat Kohli, who also Friday showed promise to come out of his poor form through a gritty 45 off 94 balls.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
