On the first day of the final match of the Ranji Trophy 2019/20, star Saurashtra cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara was retired hurt when his team was struggling. However, the Indian Test specialist cricketer is likely to be available for batting from the second day of this crucial match.
The final of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season has started on Monday (9th March) at Rajkot where Saurashtra are facing Bengal.
After winning the toss, the Saurashtra openers Harvik Desai and wicketkeeper-batsman Avi Barot provided a solid start. While Saurashtra didn’t lose their opening wicket in the first session, they stretched their partnership to 82 runs before losing the wicket of Desai on 38 runs.
While Barot scored 54 runs, Vishvaraj Jadeja and Arpit Vasavada put the 50 runs partnership for the third wicket. But once that partnership was broken as Jadeja lost his wicket on 54 runs, Saurashtra struggled till the end of the day.
Coming to bat at late, Cheteshwar Pujara was retired hurt on just five runs
Cheteshwar Pujara came to bat at the no.6 position after the dismissal of Sheldon Jackson (14) when Saurashtra were struggling on 182/4 in the 69 overs. Pujara’s strong batting was very important at that moment, but the right-handed batsman left the field due to feeling unwell after spending just seven overs on the pitch.
When Pujara decided to retire hurt, Saurashtra were battling on 197/4 while the Indian Test specialist cricketer scored five runs off 24 balls.
After the dismissal of Chetan Sakariya (4), the day was ended as Saurashtra were batting on 206/5. Vasavada was still batting on 29 runs.
Later, Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Unadkat revealed that Pujara had the fever and throat infection. However, he believes that Pujara will be fine to bat from the second day of the game. So, we can expect Pujara from the beginning of day two of this final match.
Unadkat said according to PTI, “He has fever and a bad throat but should be fine to bat tomorrow.”
The right-arm Bengal pacer Akash Deep (3/41) has taken three wickets, while another pacer Ishan Porel (1/37) and the left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed (1/56) have picked up one wicket each.