'Puji bhaag bh****od' - Rohit Sharma shouts at Cheteshwar Pujara as the latter fails to complete a run

Coming into the fourth day of the first Test, South Africa had already made a stupendous comeback on the backs of Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock’s centuries. After a jittery start, the visitors had reduced the trail to only 71. Even the lower order added some valuable runs. In India’s second innings, the onus was on Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal to build on the decent lead.

However, Mayank, who got a double ton in the first innings, got out for only seven to left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj. The onus was then on Rohit to take forward India’s second innings. The Mumbai batter had Cheteshwar Pujara as his partner. The latter has gone into a bit of a slump of late and took his time initially to get the measure of the conditions and the opposition bowling.

On the other hand, Rohit looked a class apart and he got the runs at a brisk rate. He was finding the boundary and was also running hard between the wickets. In the meantime, Rohit hurled abuses at Pujara, calling him a bh****od. In an over from Dane Piedt, Rohit tapped the ball on the off-side and set off for a single. But Pujara wasn’t interested and backed off. It didn’t make Rohit happy.

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Rohit Sharma keeps on shining in Visakhapatnam

Rohit was a tough nut to crack in the first innings where he piled on agony for the South African bowlers with a score of 176. He was also involved in a 317-run opening stand with Mayank that laid the platform for the massive score of 502. The 32-year-old opened the batting for the first time in Test cricket and the occasion didn’t fluster him by any stretch of the imagination.

He carried forward his form in the second innings as well. Rohit got to his half-century off 72 balls. En route the half-century, he smacked three fours and as many sixes. Prior to the series, many questioned his credentials to sustain in red-ball cricket, but Rohit has been able to answer the critics pretty effectively. He replaced KL Rahul, who was sidelined due to poor form.

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