Ranji Trophy: Cheteshwar Pujara flops as 17 wickets fall in Saurashtra vs Maharashtra encounter
Out-of-content Cheteshwar Pujara scored just three runs in 16 balls for Saurashtra against Maharashtra.
Solapur (Maharashtra): Indian captain Rohit Sharma might have refused to close the doors on Cheteshwar Pujara last month, but the Saurashtra veteran did not help his cause by coming off cheaply in a Group A Ranji Trophy match against Maharashtra on Friday.
Maharashtra reeled at 116/7 and squandered Saurashtra's bowling advantage for 202 as 17 wickets fell on an extremely productive first day for bowlers. Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Unadkat won the toss and opted to bat first, but his decision backfired as the team dropped to 23/3 in no time.
Pujara, the 36-year-old veteran campaigner with 103 Tests and 261 first-class matches to his name, came in at Vishvaraj Jadeja's fall but all he could manage was three runs in 16 balls. Left-arm spinner Hitesh Walunj, who was the most successful bowler of the day with excellent figures of 6/93 in 26 overs, got rid of the game's most high-profile player when he trapped Pujara in front of the wicket, leaving Saurashtra in a precarious situation. position quite early in the match.
The out-of-favour Pujara was not considered for the ongoing five-match Test series against England at home, with the national selectors preferring fresh faces instead. However, during an interaction with scribes ahead of the series against England, India captain Rohit refused to believe that the days of Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were over in the team's Test line-up.
Arpit Vasavada (14) fell after a start and opener Harvik Desai, who had reached 25 in 49 balls, followed his other colleagues to the dressing room to continue Saurashtra's misery. Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (72 off 107 balls) and Prerak Mankad (56 off 80) joined forces at 54/5 and added an invaluable 118 runs for the sixth wicket to give Saurashtra's total a semblance of respectability.
Given the state of the match, their partnership could be crucial to the final outcome. Besides Walunj, off-spinner Taranjitsingh Dhillon was among the wickets for Maharashtra, finishing with impressive figures of 4/54 in 17.1 overs.
After saving his team with the bat, Jadeja returned to torment Maharasthra with his left-arm spin, taking four wickets for 47 runs to put his team ahead in the match. For Maharashtra, opener Kaushal Tambe made 37 and Ankit Bawne 34.
Maharashtra are 86 runs behind at stumps, and will require a special effort from their remaining batters to secure a first innings lead.
In another Group A match at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand were well placed at 96/1 after bundling Manipur for 170, trailing by just 74 runs. In Jaipur, Rajasthan, who opted to bat first after winning the toss, were 275/5 at stumps in their first innings. Services were sent to bat and staggered at 72/7 against Haryana in Rohtak as only 36 overs were bowled due to bad weather.
Short scores:
Saurashtra 1st innings: 202 all out in 60.1 overs (Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 72, Perak Mankad 56; Hitesh Walunj 6/93, Taranjitsingh Dhillon 4/54) vs Maharashtra 1st innings: 116/7 in 29 overs (Kaushal Tambe 37; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 4 /47).