Pujara surpasses Merchant’s record
THE RUN MACHINE The India No. 3 scores his 12th firstclass double century, the most by an Indian batsman NEWDELHI: NEW DELHI: KOLKATA: BRIEF SCORES
Cheteshwar Pujara is renownedforgrindingthebowling attacks in domestic cricket. And the India No 3 claimed the record formostdoublecenturies in first-class cricket byanIndian batsman on Thursday.
Pujara claimed the accolade whilemaking204forSaurashtra against Jharkhand in a Group B Ranji Trophy game at Rajkot.
Pujara’s 12th double century overalltookhimpastthemarkof formerIndiaTestbatsmanVijay Merchant (11). Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid are joint third in the list with 10 double centuries each.
ThreeofCheteshwarPujara’s 12 first-class double tons have comeinTestcricketwhiletwoof thoseknocksaretriplecenturies.
The right-handed batsman, who began the day on 125, finishedon204off355balls,hitting28 boundaries.Saurashtradeclared theinningsat553/9.Hisperformance would please the Indian teammanagementthatmayhave been worried because of his below-par performance in Englishcountycricket,wherehe notched up a highest of just 34 in his last eight innings. His Ranji Trophy openers this season too yielded little.
Towards the end of the day, Jaydev Unadkat removed the openers.
DELHITHROWAWAY ADVANTAGEVERSUS UP
Uttar Pradesh fought back through left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar to reduce Delhi to 228/6 at stumps on day two of theRanjiTrophyGroupAmatch.
UP, who resumed at 270 for eight, were all out for 291.
In response, Delhi were looking good at 125/1 before Gautam Gambhir’s fall triggered a collapse,whichsawtheteaminserious trouble at 187/5.
After Gambhir (86), Dhruv Shorey (65*) held the innings together but Delhi still need 63 runs to equal UP’s first innings total.
WhileDelhipacersreveled on a green surface on day one, UP spinner Kumar (3/74) came up with crucial breakthroughs.
He first removed opener UnmuktChand,whoisyettofire Batsman M Cheteshwar Pujara 159 Vijay Merchant Vijay Hazare Sunil Gavaskar Rahul Dravid 150 238 348 298 Inn 100s 200s 257 42 234 367 563 497
in the tournament, before taking the prized wicket of Gambhir.
Milind Kumar was out for a duck,leavingDelhiat127/3.Shorey and Rishabh Pant (30) got together but were not able to build a big partnership that was neededtochangethemomentum of the game in the home team’s favour.Pant, playing his first game of the tournament, batted like he normally does hammering three fours and couples of sixes during his 23-ball cameo. 45 60 81 68
Last match’s hero Manan Sharmatoodepartedquicklyand so did Nitish Rana.
TIWARYGIVESBENGAL EDGEOVERHIMACHAL
Bengal pacers fought back in the final session after ManojTiwary’ssplendidcentury to leave Himachal Pradesh reelingat163/5intheirRanjiTrophy groupDfixtureatEdenGardens. Resuming at an overnight score of78,Tiwarycracked128toguide Bengal to 419 in their first innings.
Profligate with the new ball initially,IndiapacerMohammed Shami (2/74) got his sting back when the ball got old and ended Priyanshu Khanduri’s 120-ball vigil at the crease for 52 runs.
In space of two balls, Ashoke Dinda(2/39)removedthein-form Nikhil Gangta for a cheap 24 before bad light stopped play at 39.3 overs with the group D leaders trailing by 256 runs.
Resuming the day on 306/5, Bengal made steady progress as Tiwarynotcheduphis24thfirstclass centuryandfirstofthisseason.Tiwaryfoundafinesupport inShreevatsGoswamiastheduo looked in control in their 64-run partnership till the latter was trappedbyPankajJaiswal(3/83).
Bengal innings folded just after the lunch as Rishi Dhawan (4/86)andJaiswalwippedthetail but not before they crossed the 400-mark with Mohammed Shami hitting a 22-ball 26.
In reply, Himachal were reduced to 9/1 with Dinda dismissing Prashant Chopra (6) in the third over but after that skipperSumeetVerma(64)andKhanduri looked in control to lay a solidfoundation.Bengalbowlers struggledtogetanyhelpfromthe wicket as Verma and Chopra added 92 runs for the second wicket before Mukesh Kumar gave the breakthrough dismissing the Himachal captain.
Shami looked lacklustre and got his first wicket in the ninth overandconceded74.ButKhanduri looked dogged and completed his fifty in 107 balls with a fine support from Gangta, fresh from his consecutive centuries against Services and Goa.
The duo, however, could not consolidate as Shami trapped Khanduri before Dinda swung the match in their favour. ( RANJI DAY 2)