India vs South Africa: Pujara rates second innings effort in Mohali as one of his best

India won the first Test against South Africa in Mohali in under three days. The largest total in the match was India's 201 in the first innings. A total of 693 runs were scored with spinners taking 34 out of the 40 wickets. Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay accounted for 230 of those runs - roughly 33 percent of the total that the rest of the 20 batsmen.

Record books will show Pujara's 77 in the second innings was the highest score in the game and one that played a crucial role in India's victory.

Cheteshwar Pujara in action in Mohali. AFP

"This one is up there. The conditions were difficult and the team needed a good total," Pujara told BCCI.tv in aninterview after the match. "We have played cricket on some challenging wickets and this was one of those. It was an innings of 77 but it was crucial in the context of the match. Ultimately we were able to put on a decent total which we could defend."

The pitch, which started turning on day one, has been the center of attention before, during and after the Test match. South African opener Dean Elgar said after the first day of the match that this was 'not a good wicket.' But, as Virat Kohli pointed out, the pitch was difficult to bat on but had no demons in it.

It is an assessment that Pujara agrees with. "The wicket was challenging but it wasn’t that bad if you applied yourself as a batsman. Once you were set, the bowlers were struggling to get wickets. It was all about making a partnership. That’s what Vijay and I spoke about when I went in to bat (in the second innings).

"It helped that we had a partnership in the first innings as well. If two batsmen were set and solid, it was not easy for the bowlers to get wickets."

Pujara and Vijay were also involved in the highest partnership of the match when they put on 86 in the second innings. Their 63-run stand in the first innings was also the fourth highest stand in the match. Clearly, they got something right that most batsmen couldn't - and Pujara said it was the communication between the two of them on what lines and lenghts the South African bowlers were likely to bowl, that was the key.

"Most importantly, I thought we both defended well and looked solid at the crease. As a fielding unit they had to think really hard as to how to get us out. Once we were in, we were rotating the strike, punishing the loose balls and were solid in defence. All the things went perfectly for us," Pujara said.

He also talked about the importance of not getting into a shell when the bowlers were on top. In both innings Vijay and Pujara attacked the loose balls and in a fast outfield, got good value for their shots. Out of the 101 runs Pujara scored, there were 12 boundaries and a six - yes, Pujara was the only one to hit a six in a match which had players of the ilk of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli.

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Pujara said that once he got set and had a rhythm going he had to play his shots on this wicket. "Every time I got a loose ball, I wanted to make sure I got a boundary. If not a boundary, I at least tried to rotate the strike."

Hashim Amla spoke about most batsmen getting out to the illusion of spin than actual turn on the track. Amla himself was a victim, inexplicably shouldering arms to a ball from Ravindra Jadeja that hit the middle of the middle stump. Pujara said that the difficulty was to do with determining which balls would turn and which wouldn't. "As a batsman it was important to judge the line of the ball well and not presume what it would do. You cannot expect the ball to turn all the time. At times it is difficult to do that, but you have to manage it."

As Firstpost's Tariq Engineer said the batting in this Test was mostly just terrible except Puajara and Vijay's efforts. But just like Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman made crucial half-centuries in the second innings in that famous, controversial Test in Mumbai in 2004 that finished in three days, Pujara's 77 will be a knock that might not thrill the statisticians in the game. He might go on to score many more big hundreds - he already has four scores of 150 plus in Tests - but this 77 will be special, just for the sheer difficulty of the circumstances.