Pujara county tracker; Pujara scores his maiden century for Yorkshire

Pujara county tracker; Pujara scores his maiden century for Yorkshire: Weeks before India begin their season with the first Test match since January this year, Indian Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara has made sure he is among runs as he scored his maiden century for his County side, Yorkshire. Playing for Yorkshire in LV – County Championship Division One, Pujara scored an unbeaten 133 against Hampshire at Leeds after having a pretty average season.

Pujara, who scored 131 runs in 5 innings at an average of 26 till he came out to bat at No.3 for Yorkshire in 2nd innings vs Hampshire at Headingly Oval when his side held a lead of 178 runs. Quite opposite to his play in the first innings (a 74-ball 18), Pujara started off by striking couple of boundaries early on.

The Saurashtra batsman looked cautious against Fidel Edwards, who was the most threatening bowler till he decided to take on the West Indian. Edwards, who picked up the first two wickets of the innings got hit for three consecutive boundaries by Pujara. He didn’t look to stop his counter attack as he pulled Fidel Edwards’ delivery which went for a six over the wicket-keeper’s head.

Later he survived on a few edges which were seen flying away to the boundary. Pujara soon went past his fifty in 71 balls, his second fifty of this season by driving a Dawson’s delivery handsomely towards the boundary. After his fifty, he slowed down the pace off his innings and concentrated on playing more deliveries. He dammed the boundaries after his fifty and had to wait for a while to get to his maiden century as he was unbeaten on 91 at Tea. He got brilliant support from Bairstow who shared a stand of 130 runs.

However, it didn’t take time after Tea interval as Pujara flicked one towards the leg side off Edwards to bring up his maiden century for Yorkshire. With his side looking towards declaration, Pujara along with Leaning shifted the gears. He led the charge with 5 fours in the next 19 balls he faced, scored 33 runs and remained not out and shared an unbeaten partnership of 95 in 12 overs with John Leaning. Pujara’s innings contained of 17 fours and a six. He looked pretty confident in playing through the offside in this innings despite of surviving a few close edges through the slip cordon.

First few Appearance:

Talking about his performances in this county season, he began with a Duck vs Worcestershire after repeating his mistakes from recent international failure of edging into slips. However he scored a fifty in his next innings against Nottinghamshire. With the help of 9 fours, he scored 57 before throwing his start away by holing out at deep mid-wicket off Samit Patel’s bowling.

The Following Games:

Pujara yet again failed to convert his starts in the both innings vs Warwickshire in his third game. He got out to by edging to the keeper off Boyd Rankin for 23 in his first innings and got trapped in front by spinner, Jeetan Patel for 33 in the second. Even in the first innings of the ongoing game vs Hampshire, he edged one to slips after batting for about 74 balls for his 18 runs.

Pujara has reported that his stint with Yorkshire for this season has been completed and he will be seen returning to India for resuming International duties. Glenn Maxwell will be taking the place of Pujara as overseas player for Yorkshire for the Natwest T20 Blast which is going to kick off from this Friday.