The 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is currently in progress where all the major Indian cricketers are busy playing. However, far from all this T20 cricket, India's Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara is shining with the bat gearing up for the second consecutive final of World Test Championship (WTC). India are set to face Australia in the WTC final later this year in June in the England. Pujara will be crucial to India's fortunes batting at number three against well-oiled Australian bowling unit.
Coming back to his brilliant knock, Pujara has led from the front for Sussex with the bat and has bailed the team out of trouble in the ongoing County Championship. He came out to bat with the team's score reading 44/2 and soon got reduced to 91/4. However, Pujara stayed put and played a superb knock making sure runs came from one end. He smashed his 57th first-class century to help the side recover and come almost to parity in the first innings against Durham at County Ground in Hove.
He scored 115 runs off 163 deliveries with 13 fours and a six to his name before getting out to Ben Raine with team's score being 245 runs. Pujara's resistance also inspired Sussex's lower-order batters to hang around in the middle as they frustrated the opposition bowlers. They ended the day at 332/9 with the last-wicket stand between Nathan McAndrew and Henry Crocombe adding 18 runs so far.
Earlier in the game, Durham managed to post 376 runs on the board with their batters playing an aggressive brand of cricket. The openers added 142 runs for the first wicket and at 213/1, it seemed like they will run away with the game. But McAndrew stunned the opposition with his bowling picking up a five-wicket haul. Thanks to his performance, Durham were skittled for 376 runs in just 80.2 overs. Meanwhile, Pujara will have a task on hands in the chase later in the game and will be keen to take his side home with the bat.
