‘Captain’ Pujara slams 5th ton in 7 games for Sussex | Cricket News – Times of India

MUMBAI: Enjoying a superb captaincy debut for Sussex, India’s Test No. 3 Cheteshwar Pujara continued his magnificent form in County Championship, stroking an unbeaten century (103 not out, 156b, 9×4, 1×6) – his fifth in seven games this season- to take his team to a strong 291 for two (at the time of filing this story) on Day 1 against Middlesex at Lord’s on Tuesday.
The in-form Pujara was named the interim captain by Sussex after their regular skipper Tom Haines was ruled out for “5-6” weeks due to an injury. The 34-year-old has so far added 192 with Tom Alsop (121 not out) for the third wicket. Interestingly, one of the Middlesex bowlers Pujara faced was India pacer Umesh Yadav, who was wicketless (0-28 in 14 overs).

Before this game, Pujara was the third-highest run-getter in the County Championship Division 2. The Saurashtra man had scored 766 runs in six games at a Bradmanesque average of 109.42, with his highest score being 203. His tally now includes two double hundreds and three hundreds.
His sizzling form in County cricket had earned Pujara a recall to the Indian team for the fifth Test against England earlier this month.
Sundar starts off with 4-69
Meanwhile, enjoying a smashing debut in County cricket, Indian off-spinner Washington Sundar took four for 69 for Lancashire to reduce Northamptonshire to 218 for seven at Northampton.
Introduced in the 10th over, Sundar picked up his maiden wicket in the English County Championship off just the second ball that he bowled, as Northamptonshire captain and New Zealand’s Test opener Will Young (2) edged a cut to ‘keeper Dane Vilas. Sundar then took the wickets of Ryan Rickelton (22), Rob Keogh (54) and Tom Taylor (1) in his 19 overs.
Before his County debut, Sundar had said that he was looking forward to playing with English swing great James Anderson at Lancashire-his favourite team in childhood.
At Edgbaston, also making his County debut for Kent, Indian pacer Navdeep Saini, after being dismissed for a duck against Warwickshire, took Chris Benjamin’s wicket while going for 34 runs in his three overs. Replying to Kent’s 165, Warwickshire were 61 for three.