India all out for 503 at tea, lead by 266 runs

Cheteshwar Pujara scored his second double hundred and shared a record partnership with Murali Vijay as India took a huge 266-run first innings lead against Australia on the third day of the second cricket Test, here today.

Despite failure of the other middle-order batsmen, India scored a commendable 503 in their first innings and the tea break was taken after the fall of last wicket.

Pujara added a whopping 370 runs for the second-wicket with Vijay before the latter was dismissed for a well-made 167, ending his 361-ball knock, in which he hit 23 boundaries and two sixes.

India’s newest ‘Run-Machine’ Pujara scored a magnificent 204 before holing out in the deep fine-leg region while trying to hook a James Pattinson delivery. Pujara faced 341 balls with 30 boundaries and a six.

Once the partnership was broken, India lost wickets in a heap with last six wickets falling for only 43 runs.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni played a cameo, smashing 44 off 43 balls and added 56 for the fifth wicket with Virat Kohli (34) but the lower middle-order were snapped out in a jiffy.

Debutant all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was the most successful bowler grabbing four for 127 while Xavier Doherty took three wickets at the expense of 131 runs.

During the course of the marathon partnership between Pujara and Vijay, a few record tumbled by the wayside. The duo also eclipsed the 34-year-old second-wicket partnership record of 344 runs, set by Sunil Gavaskar (182) and Dilip Vengsarkar (157), against West Indies at Kolkata in 1978.

Pujara reached his double hundred, when he came down the track to whip Maxwell through the mid-wicket boundary.

The Australian bowlers lacked penetration and failed to cause any damage whatsoever as not even once did the pair looked like getting out.

Pujara and Vijay were unlucky as they failed to surpass the VVS Laxman-Rahul Dravid record partnership of 376 runs for any wicket against Australia at the Eden by seven runs.

Funnily, Sachin Tendulkar also got associated with a record.

Coming in to bat at No 4, Tendukar had to wait till the fifth ball of the 118th over to come in which is by far the highest duration that he has waited at the pavilion with his pads on.

In the morning, it took nearly 25 overs for Australia to finally get a breakthrough as Vijay gloved an off-break from Maxwell to Ed Cowan at backward short-leg to give the debutant his maiden Test wicket.

However, the Tamil Nadu opener had done his job and has now secured the opening slot for the time being. Vijay’s performance would certainly put a lot of pressure on the national selectors to axe Virender Sehwag, as they select the squad for the last two matches at the end of this Test.

Pujara didn’t show any signs of hurry as he had enough time to play his strokes. With the pitch getting slower, Pattinson’s bouncers were also losing sting as the Saurashtra lad completed another personal landmark of 1000 Test runs.

Pujara became the second fastest in terms of innings to reach the landmark in 18 knocks—second to Vinod Kambli, who had achieved the feat in 14 knocks.

Tendulkar hit Pattinson for a boundary past backward point but was caught down the leg—side by glovesman Wade. As Pattinson and other players went up with a caught behind appeal, umpire Kumar Dharmasena referred the legality of the catch to third umpire S Ravi. The third umpire adjudged Tendulkar caught behind.

In red-hot form, Dhoni started clobbering the bowlers from the word go as he hit seven boundaries before failing to clear mid-off fielder. Once the Indian captain was out, the visitors did not take much time to polish off the lower order.