'A flash of brilliance': Steve Smith pulls off screamer to end Cheteshwar Pujara's gritty knock in Indore - Watch

Cheteshwar Pujara scored a half century that kept India's faint hopes alive on the second day of the third Test and his innings was ended by a stunner of a catch at leg slip from Australia captain Steve Smith.

Cheteshwar Pujara played a masterful knock on a wicket that was turning square right from the first session of the first day of the third Test between India and Australia at the Holkar Stadium and it was his innings that gave the hosts a glimmer of hope at the end of the second day. Pujara batted out 142 balls for his 59 and even looked set to shift gears a bit when his innings came to an abrupt end thanks to a stunner of a catch from Australia captain Steve Smith.

Australia's captain Steve Smith, left, drives to takes a catch to dismiss India's Cheteshwar Pujara, right, during the second day of third cricket test match between India and Australia in Indore, India, Thursday, March 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Surjeet Yadav) (AP)

Nathan Lyon had bowled the third ball of the 57th over on a length around middle stump. The ball spun back in and Pujara tried to play it fine. However the 35-year-old did not seem to get as much bat on it as he would have liked but there was still a lot of work for Smith at leg slip to take the catch. He put in a low dive to his right and caught the ball with his outstretched right hand with almost no reaction time.

“That is an absolute blinder if ever there was one. It needed something spectacular to get rid of Pujara and you have seen a flash of brilliance from the Australian captain,” was how commentator and former India head coach Ravi Shastri called it. Pujara was not the only one to fall to a stunning catch on Thursday. Earlier, Shreyas Iyer's counter attack came to an end with Usman Khawaja taking a stunner. Iyer flicked a full ball from pacer Mitchell Starc and Khawaja plucked the ball out of thin air diving low to his left.

That catch had ended a 35-run partnership between Iyer and Pujara, which was India's highest in the second innings. With 26 off 27 balls, Iyer was India's second highest run scorer of the second innings with Nathan Lyon taking figures of 8/64 to dismiss the hosts for a score of 163. Australia thus need to chase down a target of 75 to halve India's 2-0 lead in the four-match Test series.