Cheteshwar Pujara slammed a century in Duleep Trophy (AFP Image)
Cheteshwar Pujara was batting on 133 when the rain stopped play in Alur as West Zone hold commanding position in the game.
Cheteshwar Pujara scored a century in the Duleep Trophy semifinal days after getting dropped from India’s Test squad for the West Indies series. Pujara scored a gritty century to help West Zone recover as he didn’t get much support from the other batters. Pujara resumed his batting on Day 3 from his overnight score of 50 and West Zone kept losing wickets from the other end.
Pujara, who is known for his grit and resilience, stood strong and fought hard for his team to put it in a formidable position. The talismanic was batting on 133 when the rain stopped play in Alur.
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Pujara has faced 278 balls thus far and hit 14 fours and a six. He resumed the innings alongside Sarfaraz Khan who failed to add anything to his overnight score and was dismissed for 6.
Het Patel (27) tried to give some support to Pujara but he also failed to score big and was dismissed by Saransh Jain.
However, Pujara hold one end and scored crucial runs for his team to put them into a commanding position with a 383-run lead when the rain stopped play.
In the first innings also the talismanic batter displayed resilience and faced 102 balls but he failed to score big and was dismissed for 28 by Shivam Mavi.
He didn’t waste the opportunity in the second innings and scored a fine century to equal the tally of Vijay Hazare – 60 in terms of the most first-class century for India. He is now just behind Sunil Gavaskar (81), Sachin Tendulkar (81) and Rahul Dravid (68) in the elusive list.
Earlier, Pujara was dropped from India’s Test squad after his underwhelming show in the World Test Championship Final against Australia. He faced the axe after low scores in both innings as the BCCI decided to give chances to the youngsters – Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad who received their maiden call-ups for the West Indies series.
However, the selection committee was criticised heavily by the former cricketers including Sunil Gavaskar for making Pujara the scapegoat of India’s failure at the big stage where other players also faced against Australia at the Oval.
