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India's veteran Test batter Cheteshwar Pujara ended his drought of centuries in style with a double ton on his debut for Sussex on April 17. It was after a long gap of 52 innings in the First-Class format, Pujara scored a century. The double ton against Derbyshire also helped him enter history books. The 34-year-old became the second Indian batter to score a double century in England's County Championship.
The only Indian to achieve this feat twice is former skipper Mohammad Azharuddin. The Hyderabad-born batter scored 212 and 205 three years apart against Leicestershire and Durham respective. Both of his double centuries came for Derbyshire. The only other Indian to achieve this feat was Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi but he did so while playing for England.
Pujara’s unbeaten 201 is also his 14th First-Class double century which helped him surpass former Sri Lankan skipper Kumara Sangakkara's tally of double tons in the format. The Saurashtra-born cricketer now also has most double centuries in First-Class cricket in 21st century.
The game-changing double century at County Ground, Derby also helped him break an all-time record for Sussex. The previous highest score by a batter on Sussex debut belonged to Joe Gatting, who scored 152 against Cambridge UCCE in 2009.
After registering a single-digit score in his debut innings, Pujara teamed up with his skipper Tom Haines to save Sussex from a defeat by an innings. The two shared a 351-run partnership for the third wicket to help them take a substantial lead on Day 4 while following on.
Pujara took 387 deliveries to score his 201 runs. The game ended in a draw as soon as Pujara breached the 200-run mark. Sussex had a 182-run lead at the end of Day 4’s play.
Earlier this Pujara had been dropped from India’s Test squad for the home Test series against Dimuth Karunaratne-led Sri Lanka. Before that, he registered just one fifty on the South Africa tour. Also, on New Zealand, tour he did not cross the fifty-run mark once.
