JOIN USEngland made some serious inroads into the Indian batting line-up with three quick strikes on the final session of the third day of the second Test at Lord’s on Saturday.
However, Cheteshwar Pujara, who made a fine 43, thought the match was evenly balanced and India needed to bat well on Sunday to take the game away from England.
“Overall, if you see the match is evenly balanced, we need to bat well tomorrow.
The wicket has begun to deteriorate a bit so we can get them out, and we are confident about it. But it is important for us to bat well tomorrow,” said Pujara in his post-match press do.
The Saurashtra man said he would like to convert the starts into a more substantial score. “At times, you get good balls and you get out, I am happy with the way I am batting. But I should have left that ball today. I need to convert those 30s and 40s into something bigger,” he added.
Pujara had a word of praise for M Vijay, who was batting on 59. “Overall, you should know your off-stump. Vijay has shown tremendous patience and he has been leaving the ball well. He has been doing that from the first Test.”
Pujara admitted that the pitch was getting tough to bat, but kept confidence in getting a good total to defend. “It is difficult to say what total we can defend. The bounce is variable, when I was batting some balls kept low and some others were kicking up.
“Vijay and MS are batting well and with Binny and Jadeja to come we are confident of getting a good score. We also cannot forget Bhuvneshwar as well for his batting. If we score runs tomorrow, then we can do well.”