Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed by Trent Boult for 8(54) which consisted of two boundaries.
Even though India openers provided a decent start to their batting innings, the Kiwis came back into the game with three quick wickets.
Though Gill and Rohit Sharma got starts, Pujara couldn’t get going as he was dismissed for 8 runs in 54 balls. Pujara’s outing in the first innings only consisted of two boundaries and a lot of dot balls.
South Africa pacer Dale Steyn talked about how he felt the India no.3 should’ve played a bit more freely and could have rotated the strike a bit more.
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“You want to see somebody like Pujara. Now he faced 50 balls and we know that this is kind of player that he is. I saw something come up and it was like 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 4, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and then a wicket. I'm sure in all those 50 balls, he could have rotated strike and just gotten that scoring to nudge on a little bit for himself and as well as his team,” Steyn said on ESPNCricinfo.
After Pujara’s dismissal, Virat Kohli was joined by his deputy Ajinkya Rahane as the duo had a half-century partnership before the play was called off on Day 2 due to bad light. Team India currently has 146 runs on the board at the loss of 3 wickets with skipper Kohli on 44*(124) and Rahane on 29*(79).
“India would be happy that they haven’t lost as many wickets but they want to be able to keep that scoreboard ticking and keep that rotation going. These are clichés of the game but they all do matter,” Steyn signed off.
(With ESPNCricinfo inputs)