Cheteshwar Pujara has silenced critics with a century in the Duleep Trophy semi-final against Shivam Mavi-led Central Zone. On Day 3 of the semi-final, West Zone's top-order batter led by example and got to his 60th First-Class century.
Pujara did not try to score quickly and stuck to his traditional style of play. After Sarfaraz Khan got out off the first ball he faced on Day 3, Pujara shared a crucial partnership with Het Patel who scored 27 runs from 51 deliveries. Atit Sheth, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Chintan Gaja got out in single-digits but Pujara kept on scoring from one end and got to his century.
After rain played spoilsport, Pujara got run out. He scored 133 from 266 balls including 14 fours and one six. On the other end was Arzan Nagwaswalla who had taken a fifer earlier in the match. The rain interrupted the proceedings again but Pujara’s heroics took West Zone’s lead to 384.
On Day 2, Suryakumar scored a half-century with ODI-like strike rate after the two openers departed. Earlier, Nagwaswalla's fifer helped West Zone bundle out Central Zone for 128 from 31 overs.
Last month, Pujara was dropped from the Test squad after he registered scores of 14 and 27 in the World Test Championship (WTC) against Australia which India lost by 209 runs. In his absence, Yashasvi Jaiswal is likely to make his Test debut against West Indies in the two-Test series starting July 12 which is a part of WTC 2023-25 cycle.
The 34-year-old has not had a good record on West Indies soil. From six innings, he has scored 122 runs at an average of 20.33 with high score of 46. Also, his strike rate was 32.62.
On the other hand, Jaiswal has been in good form of late. He has scored 1,845 runs from 26 innings in First-Class cricket at a stupendous average of 80.21 including nine centuries and two half-centuries. Jaiswal performed well in the two-day intra squad as well scoring a half-century.
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