New Delhi: Cheteshwar Pujara put down Aussie spirits after posting an incredible double hundred on Sunday, Day 4 of Ranchi Test between India and Australia after facing record number of deliveries for an Indian batsman in the format.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

The middle-order batsman, who forced fans and cricket pundits to draw similarities between him and the great Rahul Dravid after his consistent displays, not just faced fierce spin and pace attacks but was also at the center of some intense sledging from Aussie bowlers. (IND vs AUS, Ranchi Test, Day 5 - As it happened | Report)


Pujara was attacked with a slurry of bouncers by the Aussie pace duo of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood and the latter had some exchange in the middle with Saha.


The Indian wicketkeeper, then at non-striker's end, simply asked Hazlewood to 'go back and bowl'.



"Little banter always goes on. Pujara was telling him 'look at the scoreboard'. He was on 180-odd then. They said something to me as I just said 'go back and bowl'. Nothing more than that," Saha said.


Wriddhiman Saha went on to rate his 117-run knock against Australia as his "best" Test knock so far and said the support he is getting from his teammates has had a positive influence on his batting.


Saha played a key role along with Cheteshwar Pujara (202) to hand India a first innings lead of 152.


"This is the best among the three I have. We badly needed partnership. My partnership began slowly. One of the best," Saha said at the press conference.


"Pujara always backed me to play my shots. Told me to be positive. I had the same approach here. I played in positive sense, so it came out well. Wicket-keeper batsman added. He told me to break it up and think of small, small partnerships of 10-20 runs each. I just backed my strength and showed respect to good balls."


Saha further said the support he got from his teammates, has given him a lot of confidence.


"I didn't really change the way I batted. I'm backing myself more now. When I'm playing sweep shots or stepping out, I used to have doubts early in my career. Now the team is supporting me. It's have a good effect on me."


The Bengal wicket keeper-batsman was full of praise for Pujara after the latter's immaculate display with the bat.


"The way Pujara was batting it never seemed we would lose a wicket. We did well in Irani Trophy. It was playing in our mind. We knew that we could do well if we back ourselves. We just tried to do that and looked for loose balls and run well between wickets," Saha said.


"Puji has so much patience. He scores 200-300 in domestic cricket almost routinely. He is always on the top of his game. He showed great patience here. He was losing partner at the other end, and we were not getting really big partnerships. He curtailed his shots, trying to build big partnerships."


(With PTI inputs)