London: India batter Cheteshwar Pujara slammed his fifth county century of the season for Sussex against Middlesex at Lord’s, powering his side to 328/4 at the end of the first day of the match. At the end of the day, Pujara (115 not out) and Oliver Carter (5 not out) stood unbeaten for their side. Following the fall of Ali Orr (7) and Tom Clark (33), Pujara and Tom Alsop stood together to put on a 217 partnership with both of them scoring centuries for the team.
They made sure to make Middlesex suffer for the toss decision as they choose to bowl in the scorching heat of 41 degrees. The stand ended with the fall of Alsop for 135 at hands of Tom Helm. After that, Archie Lenham was dismissed for a duck. This is the fifth century of the season in only the seventh game for Pujara in the County Championship and the second against Middlesex in the same season. It was also his captaincy debut for the team and he did live upto the expectations of the team. He also faced fellow countryman Umesh Yadav in the match who is wicket-less at the moment for the opponent team. Three of the four wickets for Middlesex have come at the hands of Helm with one for Tim Murtagh. The 34-year-old was dropped from the Indian Test squad earlier this year due to an inconsistent run of form.
But he made a strong statement with his form in the County Championship Division Two. Ever since being signed as an overseas batter replacing the Australian batter Travis Head by Sussex, Pujara was extremely impressive for his side. He has scored over 800 runs in his seven matches played this season at an average of over 125 runs with five centuries in the ongoing season.
