Cheteswar Pujara on Thursday hit his second hundred of the ongoing 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series as India take full control of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Melbourne.
Resuming on his overnight score of 68, Pujara reached his 17th Test hundred in the 114th over, bowled by Nathan Lyon, by hitting the first ball for a four to long-off boundary. It was his slowest Test hundred and the third by an Indian Down Under in terms of balls taken, taking 280 balls, taking 32 more balls than what he did against England at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai in 2012.
But the record for most balls taken by an Indian to hit a hundred in Australia still belongs to Ravi Shastri, who faced 307 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1992. Sunil Gavaskar took 286 balls at Adelaide Oval in 1985.
And Pujara is also the lone batsman in world cricket to have faced more than 4000 balls since January 2017.
Soon after he brought up his hundred, fans and experts took to social media sites to express their thoughts on the 29-year-old's unusual feat, with many hailing it was a perfect Test knock replete with such virtues as patience and hard work.
Former Aussie fast bowler Mitchell Johnson even called Pujara a "Test playing run machine". Another former Aussie bowler Damien Fleming said it's "Pujara Pathway of patience" while celebrated commentator Harsha Bhogle took the opportunity to state the importance of someone who quietly goes about doing the job for the team without the "beer cans clanging" and without making throats "hoarse".
Here are some interesting tweets:
Pujara was bowled by a Pat Cummins short delivery which kept low. He made 106 off 319 balls (10 fours).
