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It’s my best Test knock, says centurion Saha
Wriddhiman Saha on Sunday rated his 117-run knock against Australia as his “best” Test knock so far and said the support he is getting from his teammates has had a positive influence on his batting.
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Saha played a key role along with Cheteshwar Pujara (202) to hand India a first innings lead of 152. “This is the best among the three I have. We badly needed partnership. My partnership began slowly. One of the best,” Saha said.
“Pujara always backed me to play my shots. Told me to be positive. I had the same approach here. I played in positive sense, so it came out well. wicket-keeper batsman added. He told me to break it up and think of small, small partnerships of 10-20 runs each. I just backed my strength and showed respect to good balls.”
Saha further said the support he got from his teammates, has given him a lot of confidence. “I didn’t really change the way I batted. I’m backing myself more now. When I’m playing sweep shots or stepping out, I used to have doubts early in my career. Now the team is supporting me. It’s have a good effect on me.”
Saha said his 316-run unconquered stand with Pujara in the Irani Trophy final inspired the two of them to bat well. They had rattled up that stand in the second innings, which eventually shaped Rest Of India’s six-wicket win for over Gujarat.
“The way Pujara was batting it never seemed we would lose a wicket. We did well in Irani Trophy. It was playing in our mind. We knew that we could do well if we back ourselves. We just tried to do that and looked for loose balls and run well between wickets,” Saha said.
“Puji has so much patience. He scores 200-300 in domestic cricket almost routinely. He is always on the top of his game. He showed great patience here. He was losing partner at the other end, and we were not getting big partnerships. He curtailed his shots, trying to build big partnerships.”
Pujara was attacked with a slurry of bouncers by the Aussie pace duo of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood and the latter had some exchange in the middle with Saha. The Indian wicketkeeper said he told Hazlewood to ‘go back and bowl’. “Little banter always goes on. Pujara was telling him ‘look at the scoreboard’. He was on 180-odd then. They said something to me as I just said ‘go back and bowl’. Nothing more than that,” Saha said.
MATCH STATS
- 1964 The last time a batsman played over 500 balls against Australia
- 11 Double- centuries by Pujara in first-class matches — the most among Indian players along with Vijay Merchant
- 215 Number of balls Pujara faced from Steve O’Keefe in his innings — the second most by a batsman off a bowler in a Test innings since 2000
- 210 Overs batted by India — their fourthlongest Test innings and the second longest in last 55 years.
- 2001 The last time a bowler bowled 75 or more overs in an innings — Ray Price against South Africa in Bulawayo.
- 199 Partnership between Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha — the highest seventhwicket stand for India against Australia, beating 132 between Hemu Adhikari and Vijay Hazare in Adelaide in 1947-48.
- 2.87 Run rate of India’s innings — the lowest among their 27 600-plus totals.
SCORE BOARD
Australia (1st innings) 451
India (1st innings) K L Rahul c Wade b Cummins 67, M Vijay st Wade b O’Keefe 82, C Pujara c Maxwell b Lyon 202, V Kohli c Smith b Cummins 6, A Rahane c Wade b Cummins 14, K Nair b Hazlewood 23, R Ashwin c Wade b Cummins 3, W Saha c Maxwell b O’Keefe 117, R Jadeja (not out) 54, U Yadav c Warner b O’Keefe 16, I Sharma (not out) 0. Extras (b 14, lb 5) 19. Total (for nine wickets decl. in 210 overs) 603.
FoW: 1-91, 2-193, 3-225, 4-276, 5-320, 6-328, 7-527, 8-541, 9-595.
Bowling: J Hazlewood 44-10-103-1, P Cummins 39-10-106-4, S O’Keefe 77-17-199-3, N Lyon 46-2163-1, G Maxwell 4-0-13-0.
Australia (2nd innings) D Warner b Jadeja 14, M Renshaw (batting) 7, N Lyon b Jadeja 2. Extras 0. Total (for two wickets in 7.2 overs) 23. FoW: 1-17, 2-23. Bowling: R Ashwin 4-0-17-0, R Jadeja 3.2-1-6-2.
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