Australia vs India: Cheteshwar Pujara keeps visitors ahead with gritty century

India took themselves to a position of advantage at the end of the second day of the third Test in Melbourne after they mustered 443/7 in their first innings.

The day began with skipper Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara continuing from where they left off on the first day and the pair added 78 more runs before the number one ranked batsman finally fell to Mitchell Starc with the left-arm bowler having him caught by Aaron Finch.

Pujara, who scored his second century of the series soon had to walk back after Pat Cummins rattled the woodwork behind him.

Despite the quick dismissals, India seized control of the game with a 62-run stand between Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma. Sharma was particularly impressive and after Rahane’s dismissal for 34, he carried on and added 76 more runs with Rishabh Pant. He scored a gritty 63 off 114 balls with five fours in his knock as he led India to a mammoth total of 443/7 before Kohli decided to declare.

But he had just six overs at his disposal to try and test the Australian batting and safe to say, the hosts passed that test with flying colours with openers Marcus Harris (5*) and Aaron Finch (3*) safely negating the threat to see off the day at 8/0.

Also read: Mitch Marsh doesn’t deserve to be booed: Travis Head