Day One Wednesday Jan 24,2018 Third @ Johannesburg
India's struggle in the ongoing South Africa series doesn't seem to come to end.
After having lost the first two Tests in Cape Town and Centurion, India would have hoped for better performance in the final Test at Johannesburg.
But come the third Test, it was same old struggle for Indian batsmen against the South African pacers.
After two quick dismissals —Murali Vijay and KL Rahul— the opposition bowlers looked in total control.
India no. 3 batsman Cheteshwar Pujara was in the line of fire of the Protean pacers.
They kept testing him outside the off-stump, peppered him with short deliveries, and made the ball bounce awkwardly into Pujara's pads.
The lines were so tight that Pujara had no scoring opportunities.
In fact he was forced to leave deliveries that were pitched on the middle-stump too.
After having endured that burst from the pacers, Cheteshwar Pujara finally got off the mark on the 54th ball of his innings.
The record is held by former India spinner Rajesh Chauhan, who took 57 deliveries to open his account against Sri Lanka in 1994.
Even after getting first runs on the board, the batsman looked a bit tentative on the crease.
At lunch on Day 1 Wednesday Jan 24,2018 ,Cheteshwar Pujara had only managed to score 5 runs.
Earlier, during the second Test at Centurion, Cheteshwar Pujara achieved a rare feat of becoming the first Indian batsman to be run-out twice in a Test match. Overall, he is the 25th player to lose his wicket twice through run out.
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