Cheteshwar Pujara's lean run or whatever you call it by his standards has come to an end with normal service resuming on Saturday in Visakhapatnam.
Pujara showed a glimpse of his usual self and a side that comes far and between as he scored a 148-ball 81 against South Africa at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
The 31-year-old started in usual fashion after Mayank Agarwal departed in the 8th over of the innings as he took his time to settle in. At a time when India needed quick runs, Pujara took his time and barely got going. Batting at 8 off 62 balls, he was called out by the commentators for being too slow.
But, then came the message from the dressing room and it all changed. 20 overs later, Rohit was batting on 84* off 118 balls while Pujara reached 75* off 139 balls.
The Saurashtra batter took on the bowling and started coming down the track to disturb the line and length of the bowlers. Pujara slammed boundaries off consecutive balls on three occasions and even hit a six -- his 13th in Test cricket, which has 71 Test matches, spanning over nine years.
Pujara upped the tempo and went past Rohit Sharma at one point, despite the Mumbaikar being miles ahead of him. He scored 13 boundaries and two sixes in his 148-ball stay.
However, he failed to score his 19th Test century as he was sent back home in similar circumstances as Philander's ball pitched on middle and moved out and struck him on the pads and he was given LBW.
The 81 comes after 2, 25, 6 and 27 against the West Indies in the two-match Test series, which India won 2-0 in the Caribbean. Before that, he had a scintillating tour of Australia, where he scored 521 runs from 7 matches at an average of 74.43. He scored three centuries as India beat the Aussies 2-1 in the four-match series and became the first-ever team to win a Test series Down Under.
