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.