Pat Cummins, Australian pacer, said that they wanted to make it as hard as possible for India’s Cheteshwar Pujara to score in this series and so far they have been successful.
Cheteshwar Pujara was the highest run-scorer the last time Team India toured the country, as he piled 521 runs with three centuries in the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in 2018-19 as India won their maiden Test series Down Under.
Pat Cummins: Plan To Bowl Good Ball Worked Against Cheteshwar Pujara
This time around, Australian pacers were determined to make it “as hard as possible” for Cheteshwar Pujara to score and home team’s pace spearhead Pat Cummins believes that they have been able to do a good job so far.
“Today I got a bit of assistance from the pitch. But he (Pujara) is someone you know you are going to have to bowl a lot at. We got our head around that this series, for him to score runs, we are going to make it as hard as possible, and whether he bats for 200-300 balls, we would just try and bowl good ball after good ball, challenge both sides of his bat, and fortunately, so far it has worked,” Cummins said during the virtual post-day press conference.
Cheteshwar Pujara has scored 113 runs after scoring a half-century which was slow by standards as it came off 176 balls at a strike rate of 28.41.
Pat Cummins Dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara With An Excellent Unplayable Delivery And Finished With 4/29
Pat Cummins was the pick of the bowlers on Saturday and finished with bowling figures of 4/29. Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood bowled 10 maiden overs. Pat Cummins dismissed Indian batting mainstay Cheteshwar Pujara with a peach of a delivery, and the batsman himself has admitted that it was an ‘unplayable delivery’.
“The ball which I got (from Cummins) was one of the best balls of this series. I felt I couldn’t have done anything better, even if I was batting on 100 or double hundred, I don’t think I could have survived that ball which kicked from back of the length.”
“I had to play that ball. There was extra bounce. So it was just one ball which was really good and unfortunately I couldn’t get away from that. You have to accept it. That delivery could have got any other batter,” said Cheteshwar Pujara while speaking to the media after the match.
Cheteshwar Pujara has been dismissed by Pat Cummins four out of the five times in this series. Nathan Lyon has picked him once, in the first innings of the first Test. Australia lead by 197 runs after finishing 3rd day’s play at 103/2 at stumps.