County Championship: ‘Captain’ Pujara slams 5th ton in 7 games for Sussex
Cheteshwar Pujara, India’s Test No. 3, continued his outstanding County Championship play after making an outstanding captaincy debut for Sussex. He smashed an unbeaten century (103 not out, 156b, 9×4, 1×6), his fifth in seven games this season, to lead Sussex to a commanding 291 for two (at the time of filing this story) against Middlesex on Day 1 at Lord’s on Tuesday.
Tom Haines, Sussex’s usual captain, was ruled out for “5-6” weeks with an injury, thus the team named the in-form Pujara the interim captain. Together with Tom Alsop (121 not out), the 34-year-old has so far accumulated 192 runs for the third wicket. It’s interesting to note that India pacer Umesh Yadav, who had no wickets, was one of the Middlesex bowlers Pujara faced (0-28 in 14 overs).
Pujara has scored the third-most runs in the County Championship Division 2 prior to this game. The Saurashtra player had a best score of 203 and had scored 766 runs in six games at a Bradmanesque average of 109.42. He currently has two double hundreds and three hundreds in his total.
Pujara doing what he does best, scoring runs.
@cheteshwar1
pic.twitter.com/NiKOkV6dct
— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) July 19, 2022
Pujara recalled to the Indian team for the fifth Test against England earlier this month thanks to his scorching performance in County cricket.
Sundar begins with 4-69.
In the meantime, Indian off-spinner Washington Sundar, who was making his County cricket debut. He took four for 69 for Lancashire at Northampton to reduce Northamptonshire to 218 for seven.
Sundar introduced in the tenth over and picked up his first English County Championship wicket. With his very first delivery when Will Young (2), the captain of Northamptonshire. And the New Zealand Test opener, edged a cut to the wicketkeeper Dane Vilas. The last three batsmen to fall to Sundar in his 19 overs were Ryan Rickelton (22), Rob Keogh (54), and Tom Taylor (1).
Sundar had expressed excitement about playing with English swing legend James Anderson at Lancashire. His all-time favourite team, before making his County debut.
After dismissed for a duck against Warwickshire, Indian pacer Navdeep Saini, who also making his County debut for Kent. He grabbed Chris Benjamin’s wicket at Edgbaston while also conceding 34 runs in three overs. Warwickshire responded to Kent’s 165 with 61 for three.
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