Pujara lauds Pandya's efforts against South Africa

Cape Town : Renowned Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara on Sunday lauded all-rounder Hardik Pandya for helping India do well in the first Test against South Africa.

South Africa ended the second day's play 142 runs ahead, with eight second-innings wickets in hand.

While addressing a press conference, Pujara said, "He batted really well, showed a lot of character."

"I think if someone who is very promising, he is batting well, bowling well, it makes a lot of difference to the team because when you have a very good all-rounder, it balances your team combination. I hope he continues with this," he added.

"I think everyone did believe that he can play such innings, and once he played that the environment in the dressing room was quite positive because those runs were very important for the team, kept us in the game. If he hadn't scored those runs, we would have been under trouble. So I think he kept us in the game and got us two wickets also at the end of day's play. So his performance was outstanding," Pujara finally stated.

Pujara feels that a target of 350 can be chased on Newlands track.