Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara is very optimistic about India’s chances in the Cape Town Test against South Africa as he mentioned that his team can take anything below 350 to chase down in the fourth innings.

South Africa is running in front of India in the opening Test of three-match series, where they took a 77-run lead after first innings of each team. Afterwards, their openers gave them a brisk start of 52 runs but perished soon in successive overs of Hardik Pandya. At the end of day two, the hosts are 142-run ahead with 8 wickets in their hand.

However, Pujara is enough confident of chasing down a target around 350 with ease. “To be honest we don’t want to chase too many runs but at the same time, the way the wicket is behaving, I think, anywhere around 350 will be chaseable. First innings, the top-order obviously didn’t click but second innings I think we will put up a better show and if we continue to bat well, we can definitely get more than 350,” he said.

Hardik Pandya was the reason behind India’s late fight back in the game, who scored 93 with the bat apart from 2 wickets before the conclusion of the second day. His efforts took India out of trouble where they were reeling on 92/7 at once before finishing the first innings for 209.

Talking about the passage of play, India’s number 3 said “They bowled in the right areas obviously, but at the same time we knew what we wanted to do. We almost got that, I think. Rohit got out but otherwise, we were trying to build a partnership and we almost got it. So, overall in the first session, we lost just one wicket and overall we did bat well today.”

“The minus point was losing three wickets yesterday, that’s where I think we should have batted better. But overall I think we are in a good position. We got two wickets today and if we bowl well tomorrow, and if we are chasing somewhere around 350, I think, we are very much in the game,” Pujara added.