Pujara bats on as India reach 502/6 at tea

The 24-year-old Rajkot-born batsman was just four runs short of his double ton in only his sixth Test after having batted for a marathon period of almost eight hours.

At the tea break, the hosts were confortably placed 502 for six in 152 overs, with Pujara one shot away from becoming only the sixth Indian batsman to hit a double century against England. He will join the list of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Vinod Kambli and Rahul Dravid.

Pujara had faced 367 balls and struck 21 fours during his long innings. The other unbeaten batsman at the end of session two was Ravichandran Ashwin on 21.

Resuming at the lunchtime score of 410 for four, India lost the wickets of Yuvraj Singh and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni as England stemmed the run flow a bit.

Off-spinner Graeme Swann picked up one of the two wickets that fell today to add to his four-wicket haul yesterday and register his 14th five-wicket haul in an innings. His figures at the break read five for 143 after a marathon stint of 50 overs.

Yuvraj, not out 72 at the end of session one, could add only two runs in under 10 minutes before slogging a full-toss from left-arm spinner Samit Patel straight down to Swann at long on. MORE