MUMBAI — Continuing his good show, Cheteshwar Pujara hit his second century, off 248 balls, of the series against England at Wankhede Stadiumhere Friday. Pujara had scored an unbeaten 206 and 41 in the first Test at Motera.
Pujara showed character on the pitch, which offered assistance to the England spinners, Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar. Earlier, Panesar took four wickets to push India on the backfoot. India lost the wicket of M.S. Dhoni at 169, Ashwin and Pujara joined together to give India a respectable score. Ashwin scored a well-deserved half-century. At the end of the day's play India was 266-6 with Cheteshwar Pujara batting on 114 and Ashwin on 60. Barring Pujara and Ashwin, none of the batsman in the star-studded lineup could make an impression on a track that started turning from the second session onwards. Left-arm spinner Panesar made the most of the conditions who claimed four wickets. Coming to the crease after the second ball dismissal of Gautam Gambhir, the 25-year-old Pujara kept one end going by showing superb judgment against the spin to pull India out of a deep hole after the home team opted to bat first. Pujara has been on the pitch for over six hours and faced 279 balls. He has hit 10 fours. Ashwin faced 84 for his valuable knock. Pujara came into the game on the back of his unbeaten knocks of 206 and 41 in the two innings of the opening Test at Ahmedabad, which fetched him the Man-of-the-Match award and paved the way for his team's comprehensive nine-wicket victory. The first half of the day belonged to England, which sent back Gambhir (4), Virender Sehwag (30) — in his 100th Test, Sachin Tendulkar (8), Virat Kohli (19) and Yuvraj Singh (0). Barring Gambhir and Yuvraj, who fell to Anderson and Graeme Swann, the others were dismissed by Panesar. Pujara and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who mixed caution with aggression before becoming Panesar's fourth victim for 29, put on a partnership of 50 runs in 128 balls. England's hopes of slicing through the Indian tail, though, came to naught with Ashwin scoring his second fifty. With some more batting to come in the form of Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Pragyan Ojha, India would fancy its chances of taking the score past 300. — Agencies
