It won’t be easy for England to bat on 5th day: Pujara

TIL Desk Sports/ Skipper Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed may have frustrated the Indians with their dogged defence today but Cheteshwar Pujara says it will be extremely tough for England to bat through the fifth day. Cook and Hammed denied India any breakthrough until the 51st over as they chase an improbable 405-run target to win the second Test. Both England openers are back in pavilion now with India getting success towards the end of the fourth day.

“We are happy with the way things went. We got two wickets, we knew it would not be easy to get them out. We had our plans and ultimately we achieved. Possibly day five won’t be easy to bat on. We have seen cracks are opening up,” Pujara said at a press conference. Asked whether defensive play was the forward, he said: “It’s a bit difficult to take wickets if you play defensive.

But we have seen there was some variable bounce. They have done well in couple of sessions. But we are very clear about our plans. Things won’t come easy for us, we know they are capable of batting well. We would not take things for granted. We will have to come hard at them.” England are 87 for two and require 318 more runs on the final day. Only four teams in the history of Test cricket have been able to chase down 400-plus.