Saurashtra won the match by 5 wickets in pursuit of 279 runs in the semi-finals of Ranji Trophy between Saurashtra and Karnataka. Saurashtra had lost two wickets for 3 runs and 3 wickets for 23 runs at a time. Cheteshwar Pujara and Sheldon Jackson played the role of a hero in the run chase and won the match with a 214-run partnership.
Pujara played marathon innings.
Pujara, after being out for 45 runs in 99 balls in the first innings, played with the responsibility in the second innings. He scored an unbeaten 131 in the second innings. Pujara faced 365 balls in both innings and batted for 605 minutes (10 hours and 5 minutes).This was his 49th century in first-class cricket.
He has scored 20 century for Saurashtra, 18 for India, 4 for India A, 2 for India Blue and 1 for West Zone, Rest of India, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Yorkshire.
Karnataka lost four wickets for 30 runs on the first day of the match.After that, he scored 275 runs with the help of Srinivasan's 83 runs.Apart from that, Saurashtra were all out in 236 runs.At one stage, Pujara was out for 34 runs but the umpire did not give out. Pujara did not return to the pavilion, so he was also criticized. However, cricket lovers believe that it was fair to do so.
This was originally published in our scorum blog here