Team India’s struggle in the ongoing South Africa series continued in the Johannesburg Test as well. After having lost the first two Tests in Cape Town and Centurion, the Indian team was surely hoping for improved performance in the final Test at Johannesburg. But come the third Test, it was the same old struggle for Indian batsmen against the South African pacers except for Cheteshwar Pujara.

After two quick dismissals of both the openers Murali Vijay and KL Rahul, the hosts were looking in complete control.  India no. 3 batsman Cheteshwar Pujara was in the line of fire of the Protean pacers.

Also read: Shastri advice for fans

They kept testing him outside the off-stump, even showered the short deliveries, and made the ball bounce awkwardly into Pujara’s pads. The lines were so disciplined that Pujara was finding it hard to score runs. In fact, he was forced to leave deliveries that were pitched on the middle-stump as well.

After having endured that burst from the fast bowlers, Cheteshwar finally got off the mark on the 54th ball of his innings. This way, he saved himself from getting an unwanted record — of taking the most deliveries to open the account by an Indian. The record is held by former India spinner Rajesh Chauhan, who took 57 deliveries to open his account against Sri Lanka in 1994.

Also read: Amarnath decides Pujara's batting position

Even after getting off the mark, the batsman looked a bit clueless on the crease. At lunch on Day 1, Pujara had only managed to score just 5 runs.

Earlier, during the second Test at Centurion, Pujara achieved created a pretty rare record 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 in the history of Test cricket.