Cheteshwar Pujara smashes another century in ongoing county stint

Star India batter and current Sussex skipper Cheteshwar Pujara is in sublime form in the ongoing Country Championship Division 2. Against Worchestershire, the 35-year-old scored 136 runs off 189 deliveries and eventually helped his team post 373 runs on board in the first innings.

Away from all the razzmatazz of the ongoing IPL 2023, Pujara is preparing well for the finals of the World Test Championship against Australia, which is slated to begin on June 7 at The Oval.

Notably, this is Pujara’s second consecutive century in the competition and with that, he is also the current leading run-scorer of the season. The cricketer has managed to amass 468 runs in four matches and thus, his form will definitely boost India’s chances to bag an ICC trophy after ten long years. 

Meanwhile, earlier in the season, the veteran batter scored a tremendous century against Durham on April 6 and ever since he has made his intentions clear with the bat. Later on, he managed to hit his second century of the season against Gloucestershire, scoring 151 runs in the process.

Thus, the Rajkot-born cricketer has managed to hit three centuries in four matches and thus, it is expected from him to play a key role against Australia in the WTC final.

The century against Worchestershire meanwhile is a historic one as Pujara has now equalled Vijay Hazare’s feat of 60 first-class centuries. Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar have 80 centuries each to their name in first-class cricket while Rahul Dravid has smashed 68 tons.

Pujara and Steve Smith team up for Sussex

One of the modern-day greats of world cricket, Steve Smith signed up for Sussex in order to acclimatise to the English conditions ahead of the WTC final and the upcoming Ashes. On Friday, both Pujara and Smith were spotted batting together for the very first time as their partnership of 61 runs proved valuable in the middle.

Ahead of the match, Pujara stated that he has mixed feelings about teaming up with Smith as they will soon play against each other.

“We will be playing the WTC final, so it will be mixed feelings. On the field, we always have good battles, but off the field, we are good friends.” Pujara mentioned.