Cheteshwar Pujara is trying his level best to shrug off the image of a Test player. The Sussex skipper his career-best List A score of 174 in the ongoing London Cup (One-Day) against Surrey on August 14. Pujara registered the highest score by an Indian batter in England’s domestic tournament. Also, it is the highest score by a Sussex batter in the tournament’s history.
Batting at no.4 for Sussex, Pujara smashed 174 runs from 131 deliveries including 20 fours and five sixes. The Indian veteran batter started off cautiously to help his team recover from 9/2 as both openers walked back to the pavillion before four overs were completed.
Pujara stitched a crucial partnership with Tom Clark. He got to his half-century from 69 deliveries in the 28th over. He started accelerating after that and hit a hat-trick of boundaries in the 37th over. He reached his century from 103 deliveries in the 39th over. This is also his second century in the tournament so far. He shared a 205-run partnership for the third wicket with Clark who scored 104 runs.
Pujara went ballistic in the slog overs and scored 174 runs at an impressive strike rate of 132.82. He got out to Conor Mckerr in the 48th over of the innings and missed out on an opportunity to break Sourav Ganguly's record and become first Indian to score his maiden double ton in List A cricket on England soil. Ganguly scored 183 against Sri Lanka in 1999.
The 34-year-old's record-breaking knock helped Sussex post a daunting total of 378/6 on the board. So far, Pujara has scored 367 runs from five innings at an average of 91.75 including two centuries and one half-century. After his 174, he is the second-highest run-scorer in the ongoing tournament below Middlesex skipper Stephen Eskinazi.
With consistent performances in 50-over cricket, Pujara is forcing selectors to keep an eye on him ahead of ODI World Cup 2023. Pujara has not played an ODI since 2014. The Saurashtra batter has played five ODIs and scored 51 runs.
