Indian cricketers Umesh Yadav and Karun Nair pulled off impressive knocks in their respective County Championship 2023 matches on Wednesday, September 20. Playing for in-form Essex, Umesh smashed a 43-ball fifty against Hampshire while Nair smashed an unbeaten 144 runs off 238 balls against Surrey in the Division One fixture at The Oval.
Umesh, 35, last played for India in the ICC World Test Championship 2023 final against Australia in June. He failed to make any impact in the final and was later dropped from the team for the West Indies tour. Umesh's struggles with form and fitness led him to feature in County cricket and make an impression to earn a comeback to India's Test team.
The right-arm pacer struggled to make an impact against Middlesex with just three wickets across two innings in Chelmsford in the previous match but shone with a bat in the ongoing first-class match. He came to bat in the no.9 position after Sussex lost their seventh wicket with 357 runs on the scoreboard.
But a fiery knock from Umesh helped them declare their first innings on 447 runs at the loss of nine wickets. Umesh reached fifty in just 43 balls with the help of three fours and four sixes and was dismissed on 51 runs off 45 balls by offspinner Felix Organ.
In another Division One game, Karun Nair, who famously scored a triple century for India in 2016 against England, scored a brilliant hundred against Surrey on Wednesday. He remained unbeaten on 144 runs before the rain interruption at The Oval as Northamptonshire scored a total of 351/9 on Day 2.
Karun, 31, last played for India in March 2017 after featuring in only six Tests for India. But he remains in good form in first-class cricket as he reached 6,000 runs during his latest knock and boasts an almost 50-plus batting average. He also scored 78 runs off 177 balls against Warwickshire in the previous Championship match as continues to prove his worth with consistently impressive performances in first-class cricket.
