Cheteshwar Pujara slams 189 as Saurashtra score 405 for 4

Rajkot, Nov 18 (UNI) Cheteshwar Pujara's 182 Balls 189 Runs and Sitanshu Kotak's patient knock of 102 helped Saurashtra to score 405 for four wickets in their first essay in reply to Punjab's 482 all out on the penultimate day of the four-day super league match here today.

Saurashtra, resuming their first innings at 81 for one, soon lost the wicket of Bhushan Chauhan, who added four runs to his score of 41 when he was trapped lbw off left arm spinner Varun Khanna at Saurashtra were two for 95.

Cheteshwar Pujara, who has been in good form and had scored 302 against Orissa last week, continued to play an aggressive innings today and hammered the Punjab bowlers whenever they erred in length.

Sitanshu Kotak gave him able support and both together put on 268 runs for the third wicket, with most of the runs coming from the willow of Cheteshwar Pujara, who reached his three figure off 85 deliveries and his 150 runs came off from 144 balls. His knock of 189 included 124 runs in form of boundaries (31X4).

Pujara had also hit triple centuries against Maharashtra and Mumbai last month in under-19 C K Nayudu Trophy here.

Punjab Bowlers toiled hard to unsettle the duo. Punjab Skipper Pankaj Dharmani used as many as six bowlers to dislodge Pujara early but efforts were in vain. Pujara was given out LBW off Medium pacer Manpreet Gony and he seemed to be displeased with the verdict.

Sitanshu Kotak reached three figure mark off 284 deliveries having stroked five boundaries. His 102 came from 287 deliveries and he occupied the pitch for four hundred minutes.

Two wickets were shared by Punjab medium pacers Gagandeep Singh and Manpreet Gony, while two wickets were taken by spinners -- Varun Khanna and Charanjit Singh.

At stumps, Ravindra Jadeja and Saurashtra Captain Jaidev Shah were batting with 16 and 26 runs respectively.

BRIEF SCORE: PUNJAB IST INNINGS : 482 all out SAURASHTRA IST INNINGS : 405 for 4 in 121 overs (B Chauhan 45, S Kotak 102, Cheteshwar Pujara 189, Gagandeep Singh one for 43, Manpreet Gony one for 73, Varun Khanna one for 97 and Charanjit Singh one for 112).

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