Pujara, the king!

[helperononline]

2 minutes ago, zen said:

the dark knight  

Yes

[Serpico]

during the gill-pujara partnetship i kept thinking all the scenarios.. hoping that they should send pant after gill gets out.. and then mayank and then thakur, rahane.. I haven't even thought of the scenario where pujara gets out.. I just assumed that he will be there in one end, doing his thing.. never felt this assured about a batsman in away series.. not even dravid! he is just insane determination and grit

[zen]

2 hours ago, Serpico said:

during the gill-pujara partnetship i kept thinking all the scenarios.. hoping that they should send pant after gill gets out.. and then mayank and then thakur, rahane.. I haven't even thought of the scenario where pujara gets out.. I just assumed that he will be there in one end, doing his thing.. never felt this assured about a batsman in away series.. not even dravid! he is just insane determination and grit

 

Hardly looked like getting out in the marathon 2 1/2 sessions on Day 5 at Brisbane .... came in the 9th over and was out on umpire's call in the 81st (w/ only 14 overs remaining)

[Number]

In 1995 when Aus toured WI, WI were no 1 ranked team since 15 years and they were unbeaten at home since late 1970s.

Steve Waugh took blows after blows from Ambrose but stood like a rock and anchored a historic series win which started Australian era of dominance.

 

If we go on to become an all time great team from here on Pujara's innings today will draw parallels with Waugh's historic efforts.

[Laaloo]

37 minutes ago, zen said:

 

Hardly looked like getting out in the marathon 2 1/2 sessions on Day 5 at Brisbane .... came in the 9th over and was out on umpire's call in the 81st (w/ only 14 overs remaining)

Ok that’s a bit too much. Pujara played great and was gritty but not sure about hardly looked like getting out. Unless you were blind or something, he was really struggling against Lyon. Could have gotten out to him at least 5 times.

[gakgupta]

4 hours ago, sage said:

Australia would have drawn the match had they not foolishly got Pujara out 

such a shame...you have to say this...

He has a top gear, as well...see some of his old matches..

He can easily score...6 an over...if required

[ravishingravi]

7 minutes ago, Cricspin said:

I could not stop thinking that if Pujara wasn't around it's possible we could win sooner. Well a collapse was possible too  but if the rest of the batting were to fail , it's not like Pujara would win the game for us.

 

Gill was playing with great comfort while Pujara made batting look very difficult. Then Pant stroked away. Even Rahane was at ease.

 

His batting to Pacers and Lyon were both painful to see. It's like he was just literally standing in front of the wicket. Got hit so many times. It's not like Aussies are bowling short for the first time. Others get hit but not so many times in one Innings. At a point he had 10 runs in 100 balls.. I am not a strike rate guy in Tests but he wasn't able to take singles either than Gill did without  any fuss.

 

I am damn sure India will do fine to move on from Puajara.  Not like our fate depends on one man. 

Well cricket fans can afford to live in the the world of « what ifs », but sportsmen have to face the leather ball and bear the bruises. Cricketers like little master know the true worth of Pujara 

 

 

[coffee_rules]

90% of ICFers think he plays for a draw and not for wins, how can you explain to educated posters that Gill or Pant could play shots with confidence having in the back of their mind that there is a Pujara to save the day, it is a team sport after all. 

[coffee_rules]

Out on umpires' call. hitting the tip of the leg stump, borderline decision

[zen]

2 hours ago, coffee_rules said:

90% of ICFers think he plays for a draw and not for wins, how can you explain to educated posters that Gill or Pant could play shots with confidence having in the back of their mind that there is a Pujara to save the day, it is a team sport after all. 

Exactly. Test cricket is about playing sessions, giving first and last hour to the bowlers, playing to your strengths and so on 

 

We won a series in Aus for the first time with Pujara scoring 500+ runs, in this series too, which we won, Pujara has the most 50s (in fact scored 3 50s in his last 4 innings, and that too when he had not played any competitive cricket for a long time, not even IPL) 

Him playing 2 and 1/2 session again on the 5th day in a critical situation only adds to his legend! 

[sandeep]

4 hours ago, Laaloo said:

Ok that’s a bit too much. Pujara played great and was gritty but not sure about hardly looked like getting out. Unless you were blind or something, he was really struggling against Lyon. Could have gotten out to him at least 5 times.

Your hate boner on ChePu was raging throughout the game, you were cussing out his "strike rate".  yet to see you eat crow, and you're back to shamelessly denigrate a magnificent effort.

 

Tendy's words on Puji are apt - if you care about Tendy's opinion that is.

[sandeep]

1 hour ago, Cricspin said:

 

 

Other countries dont have a Pujara, what explains them being able to draw or win tests. its not like India always had a Pujara we still drew test matches. its not about his strike rate or defending ability. He clearly had no clue how to play a decent spinner like Lyon, uncomfortable against quality pace and getting hit too often and was not able to even take a single to rotate the strike for very long periods of time. He scored 8 runs during the entire first session. Imagine that.

 

Washington Sundar played beautifully during the first innings, I wont give a damn what his strike rate was. He swayed out of line of short stuff, defended confidently and looked assured. 

 

Pujara has concentration and determination to stay on the crease, I will give him that. But should a more skilled player like Gill take the no.3 position.  Absolutely in my opinion.
 

 

Anyways, we all have our own understanding and opinion. 

Gill has technical challenges ahead of him too, Shaw was worked out by NZ and Aus after a handful of tests.  Lets see how Gill does on his next tour to Eng/NZ.   Not saying he won't do well, but its presumptuous to extrapolate from his start, which no doubt is brilliant.

[DeepSpace]

18 hours ago, Cricketics said:

For those who have never played cricket with the hard ball, let me tell you, you can have as many gears on your body, none will save you without bruises when you face the kind of bullets which Pujara took today on the pitch. Each of them were hard hit. This is what it takes to battle the Aussies on the last day and he gave it all.

 

In the end the scoreline says today 100 needed of 20 overs when he is leaving., so he did his job in the end by recovering the rr. Yes, he is slow but in the end, it is how he plays and it works sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t for the team. 
 

Hats off to him for taking it all on his body today for the team. Took some on head also. They were nasty but he stoood there like a warrior and kept fighting to bat till the last session.

 

Pujara is an old warrior guarding the fort gate. There are younger ones willing to go out and battle and there are younger warriors sitting inside the fort waiting to get out, but once the gate is breached too early, it is all over.

[helperononline]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

Gill has technical challenges ahead of him too, Shaw was worked out by NZ and Aus after a handful of tests.  Lets see how Gill does on his next tour to Eng/NZ.   Not saying he won't do well, but its presumptuous to extrapolate from his start, which no doubt is brilliant.

Shaw's weakness got exposed more due to his Delhi capital coach Ricky Ponting  I just hope Shaw corrects his weakness and comes back strongly

 

[coffee_rules]

 

[raki05]

Pujara is bit overrated here. Same time he was getting hit like a tailenders the other batsmen a newbie playing first series was dealing the bowlers with utter disdain. I am all for Pujara gritty knock but taking blow on body is not mark of greatness when other batsmen around you doesn't get hit until you are tailenders. Reality is that's how Pujara play he has limited abilty as a batsmen to play slow and grind it out. Don't make him some masiha by taking blow on body when it clearly reflect he has bad technique against short balls. All in all we need batsmen like him in test cricket to grind but that's the only thing he knows.

Edited January 20, 2021 by raki05

[kohli]

6 minutes ago, raki05 said:

Pujara is bit overrated here. Same time he was getting hit like a tailenders the other batsmen a newbie playing first series was dealing the bowlers with utter disdain. I am all for Pujara gritty knock but taking blow on body is not mark of greatness when other batsmen around you doesn't get hit until you are tailenders. Reality is that's how Pujara play he has limited abilty as a batsmen to play slow and grind it out. Don't make him some masiha by taking blow on body when it clearly reflect he has bad technique against short balls. All in all we need batsmen like him in test cricket to grind but that's the only thing he knows.

Fully agree with you. @zenmade lot of thrade on pujara. End of the day its gill & pant who won this match. Pujara played some gritty innings in series but the end of series rookie gill & pant outplayed him.avg33 in this series.

[raki05]

Also he never looked confident against Lyon he has same issue against Lyon as hahane. Pujara played bravely to hold one end but please dont portray him like a king when you are averaging 33 and there was glaring weakness in his style of play against fast short ball and batting against spinner through out series . This is called overhyping and anti hero worshipping just because he doesn't hog lime light as some other does.

[Tibarn]

Awesome Che

[vaul]

He is backbone of team.