Pujara's ton decisive in India clinching second Test

Cheteshwar Pujara's double-century helped India beat Australia by an innings and 135 runs in the second Test match in Hyderabad and take a 2-0 lead in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Pujara came to the crease after Virender Sehwag edged through to Mathew Wade off Peter Siddle for six. After a few watchful overs in the morning though, Pujara and Murali Vijay unfurled their strokes. They ran amok with an unbroken 294-run stand, with Pujara scoring 162 and Vijay 129 on day two, and put India in command of the Test.

On day three, Vijay and Pujara stretched their stand to 370 runs, India's second-highest partnership against Australia and six short of the 376-run stand between VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid in Kolkata in 2001.

Though Vijay missed out on a double-century, Pujara got there with a stylish on-drive off a Glenn Maxwell delivery. He fell shortly after - for 204 - trying to hook James Pattinson, but not before he had done the damage.

This is Pujara's second double-century and the ninth for India against Australia. Eight of these have come since 2000. In the same period, England (3 double-centuries) are well behind India on the list of teams with most double-hundreds against Australia.

The partnership helped India get a 266-run first innings lead. After losing two wickets on day three, Australia's batting capitulated in in the first session on day four with R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja claiming five and three wickets respectively. Ishant Sharma struck once.

India's captain MS Dhoni said the Pujara-Vijay stand proved to be the clincher. "They carried their innings through which was important and that resulted in a massive partnership," Dhoni said. "I've got a very good side. We went through a period where we didn't win many games, so credit goes to everyone in the side."

"It was a complete and a very good bowling performance. Ishant gave us a very important breakthrough of Shane Watson. Ashwin bowled well, Jadeja bowled well."

Pujara said the key was to survive the initial outburst. "We knew the new ball would do a bit so the plan was not to lose many wickets. It's my natural game and I've scored a lot in domestic games and that helped in the tempo," he said.