Cheteshwar Pujara showcased his level of patience in the ongoing India vs Sri Lanka Test match at the Eden Gardens. During the first 2 days, firstly the rain played the spoilsport where only 32.5 overs could be bowled. Secondly, Eden Garden’s green track turned out be the worst nightmare for the India as they lost 5 batsmen within 74 runs. In such a situation, there was only man who battled hard against the Lankan pace attack under overcast conditions.
Pujara came in to bat after India lost KL Rahul on the very first ball of the match on day 1 while on day 3, he got his 16th fifty in Test cricket. However, he lost his wicket soon to Lahiru Gamange and ended up scoring 52 runs off 117 balls including 10 fours.
Unfaortuntely, Pujara missed a chance to break 140 year old Test record of scoring highest percentage of the team’s total in the first inning. This records is owned by Australia’s Charles Bannerman who scored 165* against England in the very first innings of the first ever Test match. The Aussie team total was 245 while Bannerman scored 67.34 per cent of the teams total.
In the first two days, Pujara scored 63.51 percentage of India’s total. If he had continued to bat until the completion of Indian innings, he could have broken the oldest record of cricket.
Pujara is also missed to enter the club of batsmen who batted all the 5 days of a Test match. Till day, only eight players have achieved this rare record. In 2012, South Africa’s Alviro Petersen was the last batsman to do so. From India, ML Jaisimha did it against Australia in 1960 and the current Indian coach, Ravi Shastri against England in 1984-85 batted on all the five days of a Test. Interestingly, both the Tests were hosted by Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Team India resumed their game from 74/5 on day 3 at the Eden Gardens. Fortunately, the weather conditions allowed the game to start at it’s scheduled time and it’s expected that it would be a full day game in Kolkata.
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