After two days of England’s dominance in the third Test, Indian fans finally had something to cheer as the visitors’ batsmen showed their class and kept England at bay at least for the time being. Cheteshwar Pujara was the pick of the batsmen as he played a scintillating knock of 91 and remained unbeaten by the end of the day’s play. One of his shots though gave a mighty scare to the on-field umpire Richard Kettleborough.
It was a pleasant sight for all the Indian fans to see Cheteshwar Pujara back in his element. Pujara started his knock with aggression, hitting boundaries off every loose ball that was on offer. The aggression was followed by proper class batting that Pujara is known for. The right-handed batsmen took calculated risks and played his shots with discretion.
Richard Kettleborough has a lucky escape
After the pitch eased out, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli cashed in on the situation and tried to pocket some easy runs. In the 79th over of the match, Moeen Ali bowled a half-tracker to Pujara and the latter didn’t miss out on the run-making opportunity. He pulled the bowl powerfully over the square leg where Richard Kettleborough was standing.
— Sportzhustle_Squad (@sportzhustle) August 27, 2021
The umpire was quick enough to duck and escape a possible accident on the field, however, for a moment he would definitely have had his heart in his mouth. That was indeed a lucky and a fortunate escape for Richard Kettleborough. The Indian skipper and Cheteshwar Pujara led team India’s fightback on Day 3.
Also Read: This former Indian cricketer is likely to replace Ravi Shastri as Team India Head Coach
Though England is still ahead in the game with India trailing by 139 runs, the Indian fans had a reason to rejoice on day 3, courtesy of the Indian batting. Rohit Sharma scores a fluent half-century before getting out, while Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara are still not out on 45 and 91 respectively. Indian batsmen need to continue their solid show if they want to draw the test from here.