Cheteshwar Pujara scored a chanceless hundred on a rain-curtailed day as West Zone closed in on a win against Central Zone on the third day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal at the Alur (I) Cricket Ground in Bengaluru on Friday.
Central bowlers kept finding breakthroughs from one end, but couldn’t dislodge an immovable Pujara, who scored his 60th First-Class hundred, drawing level with Vijay Hazare’s tally.
Pujara was eventually run out by Saransh Jain on 133, just before rain put an end to the day’s play in the second session with West at 292/9 and leading Central by 384 runs.
The Saurashtra batter, who started the day on 50, was untroubled by the Central bowlers, as he batted for more than six hours to take his side to a virtually unbeatable position.
Pujara and left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar duelled on throughout the day, with the right-hander blunting West’s most successful bowler with his measured defence.
The 35-year-old batter, who missed out on the Indian Test team for the West Indies tour, took a particular liking for Avesh Khan’s medium pace, as he caressed the right-armer for back-to-back boundaries with square drives in the morning.
Follow: West zone vs Central zone Duleep Trophy 2023 semifinal
While Pujara motored on from one end, the other West batters failed to stay put, starting with Sarfaraz Khan. The Mumbai batter, who fell for a 12-ball duck in the first innings, was snared by Saurabh in the first over of the day after edging one to wicketkeeper Upendra Yadav.
Het Patel, who came in next, provided the perfect foil to Pujara. The wicketkeeper-batter hit some crisp boundaries to push West forward as his batting partner continued on his own ways.
The West duo put together a 47-run stand before Central regained a foothold in the game thanks to Saransh Jain, who polished off West’s lower middle order with his quickish off-spin.
First, he had Patel caught at short leg and then trapped first-innings top-scorer Atit Sheth in front of the stumps. Dharmendrasinh Jadeja was the next to fall to the Madhya Pradesh bowler after the Saurashtra batter edged one to Rinku Singh.
Pujara, realising that he is running out of partners, upped the ante, getting to his hundred with a couple of boundaries against Saurabh on the off side.
Saurabh removed Chintan Gaja soon enough to put further pressure on Pujara, who began to resort to atypical paddle sweeps and lofted shots – including a perfectly-timed six over mid-wicket against Saurabh – to swell his side’s lead close to 400.
With Arzan Nagwaswalla hanging on, Pujara was inching closer to the 150-run mark, when he attempted a quick single off the last ball of a Saransh over. The off-spinner ran forward, before picking up the ball and throwing down the stumps at the non-striker’s end in one motion to put an end to Pujara’s marathon innings.
Just as the West batter was making his way back, the heavens opened up, almost in despondence at Pujara’s dismissal, bringing West on the verge of a second-consecutive Duleep Trophy final.
Comments
SHARE