India suffered an embarrassing 9-wicket loss against Australia in the 3rd match of the four-match Test series in Indore. Indian batters, who are known to play well against spin got webbed by the veteran Australian spinner Nathan Lyon as he dismissed 8 Indian batters in the second innings of the match.
However, Indian top-order batter Cheteshwar Pujara was the only player who smashed a half-century for India in this match. Pujara was playing confidently and rotating the strikes beautifully. The Australian team needed something special to dismiss the right-hander and skipper Steve Smith provided the same as he took a stunner in the leg slip with one hand. Meanwhile, Pujara smashed Lyon for a six in the 55th over and was given the longest six award after the match. He also talked about his dismissal.
“When he (Lyon) bowled round the wicket, his line changed a bit, he was bowling middle and leg-stump line rather than on off-stump, I just wanted to rotate the strike. I wanted to hit it to square leg but because of the slowness of the surface, it took the ball to leg slip. It was a brilliant catch by Smith.”
It is a tough pitch to bat on: Cheteshwar Pujara
Pujara also talked about the turning surface and said that it was not easy to bat in this pitch. He said that the batter should be very confident while defending the ball as sometimes the ball was bouncing while most of the time it remained down.
“It is a tough pitch to bat on. It is not easy and you need to trust your defence, you need to make sure to get to the pitch of the ball and try to judge the length early. I know it is not enough but still there is a chance (to win). You need to do that on such pitches, if you keep defending then there’s one ball which will bounce and hit your glove, you need to find the right balance between attack and defence.”
Here’s how fans reacted:
Aj life me sab kuch dekh lia
— Alpha to charlie (@Reddevi06472243) March 3, 2023
— AB (@XGIAshu) March 3, 2023
Pujara himself would be surprised 😂
— ANKIT (@IAnkitVivekSRK) March 3, 2023
Pujara himself would be surprised 😂
— ANKIT (@IAnkitVivekSRK) March 3, 2023
Ye award pujara ko zindagi bhr yaad rhega
— POSSIBLE (@possible1818) March 3, 2023
Pujara:- pic.twitter.com/ntR1tQ8jkO
— Mukulr5 (@RRmuk8649) March 3, 2023
When you can't win the test, win an irrelevant award.
— Michael Masi Never Broke Again (@RepsMasi) March 3, 2023
Life me bas yahi dekhna tha, ab moksh mil jayega mujhe
— Gaurav Manchanda (@gaurav5m) March 3, 2023
