Cheteshwar Pujara: 'The hunger to be successful' has driven India A to victory

Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujara has said that the Indian teams desire and “hunger to be successful” has driven them to victory in the recently concluded tri-series played in South Africa.

In the final played against Australia A, India A failed to put up a big score as they had successfully achieved in the previous matches of the tournament. India A ended up with a below par score of 243. They were helped to the total by scores of 62 from opener Shikhar Dhawan and a fluent 73 from wicket keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik.

The Indian bowlers had not had a great time in the series so far, but were able to fire in the final when it mattered. The Captain, Pujara, was appreciative of the bowlers contribution

“The way we bowled was exceptional, our bowling unit did a really good job. The hunger to be successful as a unit has also helped us through,” said Pujara, as reported by NDTV.

Many of the players in this India A team have had experience at the international level, and this surely helped in some tough situations faced by the team, felt the captain.

“Most of the players have played for their country so we had a lot of experience to lean on. It was good to see the way that the whole team contributed to the win,” Pujara disclosed.

In reply to the Indian score, the Australians produced a lacklustre performance, with notable performances coming only from Tim Paine who scored 47 and Josh Hazlewood who contributed with 30 runs.

The Australian captain Aaron Finch was a disappointed man and believed that no excuses could be made for the teams performance.

“There aren’t any excuses,” Finch said. “We bowled extremely well to keep them to 243 on such a good batting wicket but we started off poorly with the bat. I probably led us to that downfall and it was a disappointing way to end such a good tournament,” Finch said.

India A will now be preparing for their four day, Test match series against South Africa A. Pujara was confident of a good showing even in the Test match format.

“We are prepared, we have played in South African conditions and are aware of the conditions in Rustenburg. We came here knowing we also have a four-day Test series to play and I am confident we will do our best.”