Kolkata,
\nCheteshwar Pujara came to India\u2019s rescue after Sri Lankan seamer Dasun Shanaka\u2019s twin strike had left the hosts gasping at 74 for five on a second consecutive rain-curtailed day of the opening cricket Test, here on Friday.<\/p>\n
After Suranga Lakmal\u2019s (3\/5) exploits on the first day of the rain-affected series opener, it was Shanaka\u2019s turn to steal the limelight today as he removed Ajinkya Rahane (4) and Ravichandran Ashwin (4) to return with impressive figures of 2 for 23.<\/p>\n
Pujara was the lone Indian batsmen to produce some fight against the Sri Lankan bowling attack on a green top in overcast conditions.<\/p>\n
Pujara displayed impeccable defensive technique again and struck only the errant deliveries to score during his unbeaten 47-run knock.<\/p>\n
Shanaka took both the wickets in the morning but Pujara anchored India\u2019s first innings on testing overcast conditions at the Eden Gardens.<\/p>\n
Coming on to bat at the score of eight, Pujara faced 102 deliveries and struck nine fours in his knock, three runs away from what could be a memorable half-century as the India No 3 built his innings with supreme resolve.<\/p>\n
He patiently waited for loose balls as the visitors got maximum purchase from the Eden\u2019s green top, brilliantly aided by the overcast conditions.<\/p>\n
Shanaka struck in his third over when he tempted Rahane for a drive and got a thin edge to the wicketkeeper. Next he evicted Ashwin after setting him up brilliantly as Pujara struggled to get a partnership going.<\/p>\n
Overnight 17\/3 after Lakmal\u2019s sensational bowling display, Indians were tested in the off-stump corridor by the Lankan pacer\u2019s probing length and bounce.<\/p>\n
Indians preferred to take Lakmal with extreme caution as the Lankan new-ball bowler finally ended his overnight spell from the High Court end for 11-9-5-3.<\/p>\n
On 24, Pujara was hit on his bottom hand\u2014bowling hand\u2014thumb by a rising short pitched delivery from Lahiru Gamage as he flung his gloves in pain in the 25th over.<\/p>\n
In the next over, Pujara lost Ashwin as Shanaka set him up with a bouncer and followed it with a good length delivery that was cut straight to point by the Indian off-spinner.<\/p>\n
But Pujara remained unperturbed and looked for loose deliveries and scored mainly through boundaries before the first session was halted by rain.<\/p>\n
Lunch was taken 10 minutes ahead of schedule while it started pouring in the middle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kolkata, Cheteshwar Pujara came to India\u2019s rescue after Sri Lankan seamer Dasun Shanaka\u2019s twin strike had left the hosts gasping at 74 for five on a second consecutive rain-curtailed day of the opening cricket Test, here on Friday. After Suranga Lakmal\u2019s (3\/5) exploits on the first day of the rain-affected series opener, it was Shanaka\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10476,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474\/revisions\/10476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}