Cheteshwar Pujara spent almost 90 minutes and exactly 54 balls to get off the mark in the first day of the third and final Test at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Everyone in the dressing room was all smiles and Pujara himself couldn’t help but smirk. “It was one of the toughest pitches I’ve batted on. I really had to work hard to score runs,” he said after the end of days play.

By the time the umpires knocked down bails for the day, India had managed only 187 runs in their first innings. In reply South Africa finished on 6/1 as Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up the wicket of Aiden Markram.

Pujara scored 50 off 179 balls, with an strike-rate of 27.93 but he was happy with the effort put up by the Indian batsmen, “Overall we batted well,” he said.

“The runs on the board are sufficient and we can bowl them out. I think it’s a good batting effort at the end of the day.”

Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat first, something that has raised eyebrows and after looking at the pitch one needn’t wonder why.

“Lot of deviation and it was initially very slow, but there was enough bounce in the pitch. There was a lot of lateral movement and a lot of deviation off the cracks. This was tougher than the Cape Town surface. We were just surviving out there,” Pujara said.

He came together with skipper Kohli to repair the early damages inflicted on India’s openers by fiery South African bowlers. The pair stitched together an 84-run partnership to bail the visitors out, but couldn’t save, what felt like, the inevitable. Both departed soon after reaching their respective fifties.

“A good partnership (with Virat) but we were getting beaten too. You’re never really in on this wicket and if we bowl well, we are in with a good chance,” he said.