Pujara - back to the grind, back to grinding bowlers down

Tucked away far north of Bengaluru, Alur is like an idyllic-village setting where people go about their work minus the hustle and bustle. Even star presence - and there are plenty in this Duleep Trophy game, like Suryakumar Yadav, Prithvi Shaw and Cheteshwar Pujara - isn't enough to draw people out on a week day.

The few who climbed the boundary walls to watch were those on a short break from work at the nearby cement factory. The moment a siren went off, they were back to the grind. A bit like what Pujara was up to - he made a 278-ball 133, his 60th first-class century, on Friday.

The only difference is, unlike those at the cement factory, this grind hasn't been thrust on Pujara. It's one he voluntarily chose to go through as soon as he found out he wasn't going to be on the plane to the Caribbean with the India Test team.

Now, a 103-Test veteran like Pujara has little to gain from one, or maybe two, first-class outings at this stage of his career. You score and they go, 'but hey, what's new?'. You don't and they would probably go, 'this is why he isn't in the team'.

For Pujara, though, this sort of chatter hasn't mattered at the best of times, so it's unlikely it would now, when he's playing to derive joy out of this grind. Of batting attacks into submission, running them into the ground and then cashing in at the first sign of vulnerability. It's admirable for someone to put their mind over matter this way at 35, even when he knows the road back to the top may not be all that easy.

He missed out in the first innings, playing a loose shot after doing the hard work. He wasn't going to let another opportunity pass. On Friday, the third day of the semi-final, Pujara's approach was of someone starting afresh, even though he was unbeaten on 50 overnight. There was an opening spell to see off and he was determined to make it count.

In seaming conditions, with Shivam Mavi and Avesh Khan asking probing questions, patience was the need of the hour. With Shaw, Priyank Panchal and Suryakumar all dismissed, Pujara brought his experience to the fore.

Only once in the entire first session, Pujara played a shot he regretted, to the extent that he let out a cry of anguish and quickly patted himself in an attempt to refocus. He had just chased a wide delivery, around sixth or seventh stump, off Avesh. Pujara walked down the pitch for some gardening, took fresh guard and tightened up.

The bowling was disciplined to begin with, and in the first 75 minutes of play, Pujara added just nine to his overnight score. Those runs came off three scoring shots - two back-to-back punches for four through extra cover and a single. He went through seven overs without scoring a run, but with a 92-run lead in the bag for his West Zone team, runs weren't the main focus at that point. Taking time out, weathering the storm was.

Against Saurabh Kumar, he made a slight change. The intent to play the left-arm spinner with the bat was evident. Especially when he stepped out and got the bat out well in front of his pad, while also ensuring a loose bottom hand in case the ball spun more and lobbed off the inside edge.

In any case, odd deliveries were jumping off a length for Saurabh, who can be metronomic with his left-arm spin. A bit like Ravindra Jadeja, except Saurabh's usually a lot slower through the air. This in-between length accounted for Sarfaraz Khan in the first over of the day when he was drawn forward by the length, only for the ball to jump, catch the edge as Sarfaraz jabbed at it, and go to Upendra Yadav, the wicketkeeper.

Pujara wasn't going to give Saurabh another chance. In stepping out and lunging to negate those tossed-up deliveries on a length repeatedly, he got the bowler thinking. Saurabh immediately went flat, sensing that Pujara was ready with a counter. It was a win as Pujara profited from two cuts behind point before Saurabh reverted to Plan A.

This discipline was evident even when he was facing up to Avesh, as he repeatedly wove out of short balls by dropping his wrists. What stood out about Pujara was the unwavering belief in his methods, even if at times it seemed ludicrous that a veteran with millions of runs would actually put himself in the ring and challenge himself the way he did.

Until he got into the 90s, Pujara was hardly flashy. And then, he flicked a switch. Out came an inside-out drive against the turn through extra cover off Saurabh* (earlier mentioned as Saransh Jain) and then the moment he dropped short, Pujara cut him behind square for back-to-back fours to raise his century.

The celebration thereafter was typically Pujara. Quietly raising his bat towards the dressing room and a look up to the heavens before refocusing. It wasn't until the eighth wicket fell that Pujara was happy to premeditate. He used his feet a lot more, and unlike earlier, where the intent was to defend, he was willing to swing clean and pick the gaps.

There were sweeps, even an attempted reverse sweep, a wry smile as he clobbered a one-bounce four - all signs that the floodgates had opened. After more than four hours of defiance and self-restraint, Pujara was finally enjoying hitting the bit and clean.

With rain imminent, though, Pujara had a rare brain freeze. In pinching a run to farm the strike, he tapped the ball no more than a few yards into the off side and set off for a non-existent run, only to find himself short. It was a rare act of indiscretion on a day where he showed all the elements that have made him India's rock at No. 3 for the better part of the last 12 years.