It took him 20 balls to get off the mark, hit his first boundary in his 42nd ball that he faced and at one point en route to his 21st Test half-century, he stood at 8 off 62. It was very typical of Cheteshwar Pujara. He likes to start things slow, and carve his innings through a defensive note with rare boundaries, building on sheer patience and great composure, reminiscent of Rahul Dravid. But at another point in the innings, just before lunch, Pujara was batting at almost a run-a-ball rate and in fact, even went past Rohit's Sharma's then run tally in the second innings on Thursday post the second session. But while cricket fans will credit the change in Pujara's run-rate to Rohit's expletive that was caught through the stump mic, Pujara revealed that it was owing to change in tactic.
Remember Pujara's innings in the third Test against the Proteas side in Johannesburg? He had gotten off the mark in the 54th delivery of the innings, resulting in a generous round of applause from his teammates from the dressing room. Avid cricket followers are used to such scenes during Test matches. They know that such innings can mushroom into a bigger, probably into a record-scripting innings.
But Saturday was different. Unlike in the aforementioned scenario, India were in the second innings , hoping to pile up a big total for South Africa. Rohit looked all alone in the battle, producing that impetus, while Pujara struggled to find gaps. And hence, despite proceedings being on day 4, India's run-rate stood well below three at the end of the 26th over.
Well, Pujara did everything he possibly could. He shimmied down the track to take on the spinners, driving it down the infield, but failed to find the gaps. And amid those came a minor chance of dismissal when the delivery from Dane Piedt took a thick outside edge, but the deflection was too big for Quinton de Kock.
"It was a difficult pitch to bat on," he explained in his end-of-day press conference. "It was not easy to rotate the strike, it was not easy to time the ball well, and specially with my game and the kind of shots that I play, I was finding it a little difficult early on, but I always knew that once I am set, once my body is warmed up, once I find the right pace of the pitch, [things can change] because early on it was a two-paced pitch against fast bowlers and even against spinners," said Pujara at the end of day 4.
After the 26th over, Pujara changed his technique and what followed was a flurry of boundaries against Piedt and Keshav Maharaj. All he did was tried "to play little bit upfront with the bat."
"Early on I was trying to hit too hard; trying to play little late wasn't helping me," Pujara said. "Then obviously I had to play little bit upfront with the bat because the pitch was quite slow against spinners, so I had to generate power. So I was playing in front with the bat."
In the first ball he faced after the break, Pujara charged out of the crease to flick Piedt's delivery, but the ball took the thick inside edge, missed the off stump by a centimetre, landed a litte far from De Kock before embracing the boundary ropes. But he took the risk once again with the change in his gameplan, kept his feet strong in the subsequent deliveries he faced against the spinners carving it down the square leg, wide mid-on, extra-cover and fine leg. Pujara added 24 runs in the next 20 balls he faced laced with as many as six boundaries.
In his last 86 balls that he faced, Pujara added 73 runs en route to his 81-run knock while Rohit notched up his second consecutive ton as an opener as India had declared to set a target of 395. The hosts wrapped up the game an hour after lunch on the final day with India winning by 203 runs.
