West Zone and Central Zone are currently playing a Duleep Trophy semi-final encounter in Alur. Conditions were quite conducive to pacers on the first couple of days as Central Zone captain Shivam Mavi picked up six wickets in the first innings, while left-arm pacer Arzan Nagwaswalla stood out with a five-fer in the second innings. The pitch began to aid spinners on Day 3 as West Zone tried to stretch their 92-run first innings lead.
Suryakumar Yadav scored a fluent 52 off 58 balls, but Cheteshwar Pujara stole the show with a monk-like century in difficult batting conditions. The likes of Prithvi Shaw, Priyank Panchal, and Sarfaraz Khan could not get going, but the experienced Pujara, who was recently dropped from the Indian Test side, stood tall in adverse conditions to take his team to a position of strength.
By registering his 60th First-Class century, the Saurashtra batter equalled the record of former India captain Vijay Hazare. He struck 13 boundaries en route to his hundred and helped West Zone extend their lead by over 350 runs. In the first innings, Pujara played 102 balls and scored 28 runs but was eventually dismissed by the in-form Mavi.
Cheteshwar Pujara departs for 133
Cheteshwar Pujara’s classy innings ended on an unfortunate note as he was run out by Saransh Jain for a well-made 133 runs in 278 balls. During his knock, the 35-year-old struck 14 fours and a solitary six.
Selectors decided to leave Pujara out of the Indian Test side for the two Tests against the West Indies in the Caribbean after his failure in both innings during the World Test Championship final last month. Youngsters like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal have received maiden call-ups to the Test team. However, the door might still reopen for the right-handed batter if he can keep producing similar performances on a consistent basis in the domestic circuit.
The Duleep Trophy final begins on July 12 and will be played in Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.