Cheteshwar Pujara got to his second Test century while Yuvraj Singh scored a fifty on his return to Test cricket and was going strong as India piled on the misery on England to reach 410 for four at Lunch on Day Two at Motera.
Resuming his innings on 98 this morning, Pujara was watchful at first as England tried to crank up the pressure on him by bowling Graeme Swann with three close-in fielders. There was a slip, a short leg and short mid-wicket for him as Swann continued to reap benefits from a pitch that was turning and still holding up. Kevin Pietersen, at short mid-wicket was keeping the chatting going and motivating his teammates; the pressure was on right from go for the Indian batsmen. But after playing out one Swann over for a maiden, Pujara drove him wide of mid-on on the first ball of his next to reach a well-deserved century.
Pujara then gave the strike to Yuvraj and the southpaw hit Swann’s away-going delivery for a six over mid-off before sweeping him for a boundary two balls later.
Earlier, Swann, who opened the bowling on Day Two, was getting plenty of turn right from the start and was troubling the Indian batsmen. Yuvraj survived a few lbw shouts early on, one on just his second ball faced as he tried to sweep Swann. But he shed his nerves and went on to reach his 50 off 98 deliveries with a smack over mid-wicket off Samit Patel. This included six hits to the fence in the ‘V’ region.
It was smooth sailing from there on as the duo brought on their hundred partnership and took India past the 400 mark in 117 overs. Any hopes the England team had of getting India bowled out for below 450 were evaporating away in the Ahmedabad heat as Pietersen was brought on to bowl to his pie-chucker.
But the part-timer could not do much as Pujara and Yuvraj went into Lunch scoring 87 runs in the session and kept their partnership unbeaten on 127.
Brief Scores: India 410 for 4 (Cheteshwar Pujara 133*, Yuvraj Singh 72*; Graeme Swann 4 for 119) vs England
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