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Pujara keeps Saurashtra in the hunt

Special Correspondent

Sitanshu Kotak provides admirable support to the southpaw

Rajkot: Cheteshwar Pujara's scintillating, unbeaten 145 was the main feature of Saurashtra's splendid fightback against Tamil Nadu in its Group `A' Super League Ranji Trophy match at the Madhavrao Scindia Stadium here on Tuesday.

The young lefthander remained unruffled while facing the Tamil Nadu seam attack which had its tails up after dispatching the openers within the first half hour of play on the third day.

Pujara played some electrifying shots on either side of the wicket initially, and went on to produce a polished knock even seasoned campaigners would have been proud of. He hit 23 sparkling boundaries, almost all of them in copybook fashion.

In driver's seat

Pujara's remarkable innings has placed Saurashtra in the driver's seat at 325 for four, and Tamil Nadu has plenty of hard work if it has to pick up two points on the fourth and final day.

In the morning, Jesuraj had Sagar Jogiyani dragging the ball on to his stumps in the second over and struck again in the fourth, forcing Kanaiya Vaghela to nick a delivery. Pujara, in his first 20 minutes, punished V. Yomahesh for four boundaries.

Pujara changed gears after the second new ball was taken and Kotak (84, 310m, 220b, 11x4) and captain Jaydev Shah had left the scene.

Determined to take Saurashtra past the first target of 350 in order to prevent Tamil Nadu from enforcing the follow-on, Pujara opted for stout defence for a better part of the last hour's play.

The third wicket stand between the lion-hearted Kotak and the bubbling Pujara produced 216 runs in three minutes short of five hours. Kotak offered a couple of difficult chances, but Pujara was firmly in control. It was a dream knock from him but sadly not a single National selector was present.

The scores:

Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 500 for eight wkts. decl.

Saurashtra — 1st innings: K. Vaghela c Vijay b Jesuraj 21, S. Jogiyani b Jesuraj 49, S. Kotak c Varun Kumar b Jesuraj 84, C. Pujara (batting) 145, J. Shah c Yomahesh b Naresh 0, P. Mehta (batting) 3; Extras (b-6, lb-3, nb-11, w-3): 23; Total (for four wkts. in 118 overs): 325.

Fall of wickets: 1-74, 2-77, 3-293, 4-294.

Tamil Nadu bowling: Yomahesh 27-6-94-0, Jesuraj 30-12-60-3, Naresh 20-7-44-1, Sathish 22-7-59-0, Suresh 15-2-43-0, Prasanna 1-1-0-0, Vasudevadas 3-0-16-0.

Other scores:

Super League:

At Kolhapur: Punjab 550 v Maharashtra 308 for five in 106 overs (D. Jadhav 72, H. Kanitkar 131, S. Sriram 45).

At Hyderabad: Mumbai 115 and 108 for three in 45 overs v Hyderabad 354 in 161.2 overs (D. Ravi Teja 45, D. Vinay Kumar 103, I. Khaleel 68, R. Powar seven for 89).

At Kolkata: Gujarat 329 and 119 for one in 48 overs (A. Bilakhia 63 batting) v Bengal 326 in 99.3 overs (R. Gavaskar 74, L.R. Shukla 93, H. Majumdar five for 65).

At Vadodara: Andhra 342 v Baroda 262 for three in 107 overs (S. Parab 45, R. Solanki 104 batting, J. Martin 78).

Plate League:

At Dibrugarh: Assam 181 and 123 for four in 57 overs (J. Arunkumar 43 batting) v Madhya Pradesh 143 in 70.1 overs (S.V. Saravanan five for 24).

At Nagpur: Vidarbha 106 and 126 lost to Railways 163 and 73 for five in 20.5 overs.

At Margao: Kerala 221 and 389 for eight decl. in 90.5 overs (S. Ramesh 119, R. Fernandez 58, Sreekumar Nair 96, R. D'Souza four for 44) v Goa 205 and 22 for no loss in eight overs.

At Jamshedpur: Services 216 and 101 for three in 44 overs (Jasvir Singh 64 batting) v Jharkhand 361 in 144.4 overs (Santhosh Lal 54, S. Panda 83, M. Diwakar 50, Shahid Khan 42, A. Sharma four for 114, Yashpal Singh four for 79).

At Agartala: Orissa 306 bt Tripura 74 and 170 in 66.3 overs (D. Mohanty four for 36, S. Satpathy four for 46).

At Jammu: Himachal Pradesh 506 for five decl. v Jammu and Kashmir 209 in 74.5 overs (Kavaljit Singh 65, Hardeep Singh 61, Sarandeep Singh six for 42) and 166 for five in 57.4 overs (A. Bhatt 65).

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