5 Defiant Cheteshwar Pujara Innings

#4) 92, 2nd Test, Australia tour of India at Bengaluru, Mar 4-Mar 7, 2017

It was Pujara’s defiant innings that made the difference between an Australian and Indian victory and helped India level the match series 1-1.

This was again one of those innings which did not necessarily go down among Pujara’s glorious centuries. He fell only eight runs short of a truly deserved century when he waged a lone battle against a roaring Australian bowling unit.

He compensated for his failure in the first innings with this fabulous knock of 92 off 221 deliveries in the second innings.

India were bowled out for 189 runs in their first innings and Pujara had contributed only 17 of those. Australia in reply had posted 276 runs and India needed to produce something special on a difficult track to bat.

Each of the Indian batsmen failed again except Pujara (92) and Rahane (52). Their innings propelled them to a total of 274 runs and thus India set a target of 188 runs for Australia to chase.

Australia were eventually bowled out for 112 runs as a result of a superb bowling display from India. However, it was Pujara’s defiant innings that made the difference between an Australian and Indian victory and helped India level the match series 1-1.