Indian Pujara keeps on keeping on
Indian batting machine Cheteshwar Pujara must count balls rather than sheep in his dreams.
The broad face of Pujara's at times seemingly impassable bat, must loom large in the nightmares of Australia's bowling quartet after he achieved another landmark on day one of the fourth Test in Sydney on Thursday.
The insatiable top order linchpin became the first Indian to twice face over 1000 deliveries in a series against Australia having soaked up 1069 in the four-match home series in 2017.
Pujara has already faced twice as many balls as any Australian in the series, with Usman Khawaja heading the locals with 509 deliveries.
He reached his 50 just before tea, after taking three fours off leg spinner Marnus Labuschagne's first over, to go to the break on 61 off 138 balls having swelled his delivery tally for the series to 1023.
Keeping Pujuara company for most of the first half of the day was Test rookie Mayank Agarwal.
Underling India's top order options and and Australia's shortcomings in that area, Agarwal has scored more runs in his first three Test innings than either of local openers Aaron Finch and Marcus Harris did in the first three Tests..
Agarwal wasn't even in the original tour party and only got a callup when wunderkind Prithvi Shaw suffered a tour ending ankle injury.
The 27-year-old averages a tick over 50 in first-class cricket and has yet to fail in the series.
He followed scored of 76 and 42 in his maiden Test in Melbourne with 77 in Sydney.
Agarwal''s mettle and courage were tested in the second hour on Thursday, as the Australian pace trio subjected him to a old fashioned bumper barrage.
He looked uncomfortable at times but survived till lunch and launched into spinner Nathan Lyon when play resumed.
He brought up the 100 partnership with Pujara, of which the latter contributed just 25, with a straight six.
Agarwal repeated the dose in Lyon';s next over to bring up his highest Test score, only for the canny tweaker to have him caught at long on by Mitchell Starc two balls later.
