We will come out hard at them, says Pujara

 After a long, hard day’s work on the field, India were a relieved lot after prising out both England’s openers towards the end of the penultimate day of the second Test here on Sunday.

Chasing a mammoth target of 405, a task made that much more difficult by the conditions and stage of the match, England managed to resist the Indian attack for more than three hours before frittering away a relatively comfortable position. From being 75 for no loss, England finished the day at 87 for two.

While Joe Root is still relatively fresh, he will be joined by a new batsman on the final day for what seems an improbable task of saving the match.  

  “We got two wickets. We knew that it won’t be easy to get them out but we had our plans and we knew what we wanted to do. Ultimately we achieved what we wanted,” Cheteshwar Pujara said after the day’s play.  “We are happy at getting two wickets at the end of the day. Day five, I don’t think it will be easy to bat on because as we saw, cracks are opening up even on day four, it was difficult. Even on day three, second and third sessions were difficult. I feel day five, it wouldn’t be an easy wicket to bat on,” he analysed.

India may have set a 400-plus run target but coming into the penultimate day’s play at 98/3, India wobbled to 204 all out. Pujara, however, didn’t agree India conceded some of their advantage.   

“When you have 400 runs on the board, it is never easy playing in Indian conditions; chasing 400 on day four and five. It is always difficult, not many teams have done it. I don’t think it would have given them any psychological advantage because ultimately our target was to get close to 400 runs and we achieved it,” he reasoned.

While sounding confident about India’s chances, Pujara said it wouldn’t be easy for the hosts either.

“Obviously they implemented (their plans) well in couple of sessions but we are very clear about our plans,” he noted. “I don’t want to discuss too much about our plans but it will be a tough day for them as well. Things wouldn’t come easy for us also. We know that they are capable of batting well, so we wouldn’t take things for granted.

Tomorrow we will definitely have to come hard at them and we are prepared for it. When it comes to Test cricket, our bowlers and as a team we are prepared to be in a situation where we have to work hard for our wickets but when we see a victory, we know that we can get eight more wickets,” he offered.