Pujara would have liked to start a fresh season on a high note and press a case to get re-selected in the national team ahead of the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Cheteshwar Pujara failed to impress on the first day of the Ranji Trophy 2024/25 during the game between Saurashtra and Tamil Nadu in Coimbatore. He could only score 16 runs in 41 balls, with only two boundaries before losing his wicket to a crafty Sai Kishore.
Kishore castled him with a beauty on the third delivery of the 30th over to put the pressure on Saurashtra. Pujara is among the most prolific run-scorers and can play a long innings, so Tamil Nadu needed to send him back as early as possible.
Among the most consistent bowlers in recent times, Sai took a massive wicket to sink Saurashtra further, who had lost a few early wickets and required a partnership. Usually, Pujara is a solid player vs spin, for he can use his feet and has a solid defence, but he had no answer to Kishore’s beauty.
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He would have liked to start a fresh season on a high note and press a case to get re-selected in the national team ahead of the Border Gavaskar Trophy. But things didn’t pan out as expected, and Pujara registered a low score to start off a fresh season.
After opting to bat first, Saurashtra could only score 203 in the first innings before getting all out. Arpit Vasavada top-scored 62 runs and remained unbeaten, but other batters couldn’t support him well.
The second-best score from Saurashtra was of Chirag Jani, who made 34 runs, as several batters got the start but couldn’t translate it into a big one. They could only play 77 overs before Tamil Nadu bundled them on a low total.
As many as three bowlers – Sonu Yadav, M Mohammed, and Sai Kishore – snared three wickets each. Pradosh Ranjan Paul got the other wicket, and it was a collective bowling effort from bowlers to restrict a strong batting unit of Saurashtra to a meagre total.
Tamil Nadu will now look to score big and bat Saurashtra out of the game. They should score so much that Saurashtra don’t come near their score in the second innings.
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