It’s drinks break of the morning session. Wriddhiman Saha is looking at Cheteshwar Pujara, who is all words and gesticulations. The one-way conversation may well have been – ‘try doing what I do, and please, stay away from the fourth stump line’. Saha was already there because Ashwin had exited at the stroke of the brief intermission, becoming the second Indian batsman to fail to come to grips with the conditions on Day 2.
The 71-ball Day 1 reel should’ve been enough to suggest to India that batting wasn’t going to get any easier if the weather stayed notorious – 43 of those, played by Pujara, should’ve also been watched and re-watched to understand the way to get around it. Pujara had started his game on Day 1 and 2 in the same manner – letting the Sri Lankan bowlers know that they’ll need an alternative plan to just bowling outside the offstump and waiting for a mistake. There were moments – particularly on Day 1 – when lateral movement left him flummoxed too, but it hardly impacted his approach to the next ball. Pujara knew it was a surface where bowlers were going to walk away with inflated egos, and there was no point trying to prick it with aggression. The craft of slowly, patiently getting at the opponent was more up Pujara’s alley.
As important as it was for Pujara to religiously stay away from balls bowled on the fourth-stump line, he also developed a couple of more ploys to swim his way out of deep waters – 72 percent of Pujara’s innings at Lunch break, after which no play was possible, came through the offside and a portion of it was played very straight.
One-Test rookie Dasun Shanaka would find out early on the day that pushing your luck – and the length – was never going to work against India’s No. 3. Two half-volleys in his first over of the game, would be sent to the straight boundary – both to the right of the mid-off fielder with a delicate roll of wrists. Pujara narrowed his ‘V’ and kept a densely-populated slip cordon bereft of any action when he was on strike. On a bowlers’ dreamland, Pujara found a way of leaving them drawing blanks against him. They had to turn the other way.
Fortunately for Shanaka, Rahane didn’t come equipped with such plans. He got off the mark along with Suranga Lakmal – who conceded his first runs off the bat in his eighth over, but appeared a bit flustered by all the constant movement and the lack of opportunities to put bat on ball. The itch for it coaxed him to go for a cover drive against a ball that was outside the offstump and ended up feathering it to Niroshan Dickwella.
Ravichandran Ashwin batted ahead of Wriddhiman Saha again, but appeared very susceptible to get squared up by the away-seamers. After putting away a gentle full-toss for a four, Ashwin spent rest of brief stay trying to keep his bat away from the ball that kept whizzing away. He even took a blow to his bowling hand, but showed signs of a fight. Or so thought Pujara. It was a fight alright – involving one four and 27 balls of survival – but just not long enough for the pair to take India out of trouble. An innocuous length ball outside off that didn’t shape away was sliced to backward point. India 50 for 5.
Saha had first-hand account of all the atrocities that the pitch was upto, and Pujara’s words on probably how to stay safe. But he saw some struggle – inside edging a few, chasing away-jaggers sometimes – but hung on. His technique constantly came under scrutiny, his feet getting swayed by away-jaggers, but he somehow, hung on.
Even in such adversity, Pujara’s game hardly went off-track. There was still nothing cautionary or reactionary about Pujara’s game – the overtly pitched balls were still sent away.
It also helped India greatly that Dinesh Chandimal’s choice of fourth bowler was part-time medium pacer Dimuth Karunaratne and not one of the spinners. Karunaratne shook up the discipline that Sri Lanka had built up with the ball, and gave Pujara a chance to breathe a bit. For all the rapt attention he’d shown through Day 1 and 2, this was a timely reward – albeit unintended.
“Pujara is a batsman who has a grip of every condition when he goes out to bat. The way he bats nowadays… It was probably one of the best 47 runs I’ve seen from Pujara over a period of last 2 or 3 years.”
Fielding coach R Sridhar’s views aren’t mere press conference hyperbole. And that was reflected in a standing ovation that Pujara got from the dressing room when he walked in invaluable 47. Still undefeated.
