Pujara Hits Record High

Cheteshwar muscles back into the limelight with 386 in CK Nayudu under-22 match against Maharashtra

On Sunday evening, Cheteshwar Pujara, who has carried the tag of being one of the most promising batsmen in the country’s first-class circuit, had a question that nobody had an answer to. In an Under-22 category match of the ongoing CK Nayudu tournament, Pujara had finished the day unbeaten on 240 and wanted to know what the highest score ever had been in that age group.

Not that he was too concerned about it, determined to cross it on Monday. He called up people, but not knowing where to find an answer, one of his phone calls were also made to the office of The Indian Express. “I just want to break that record, whatever it is. Then I’ll declare,” he said, the fact that he was also the captain of the team leaving him with additional responsibilities.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) official statisticians were called, a few board officials were contacted too and the question was also put up to a few other senior statisticians and journalists. None, though, could manage to come up with a firm reply. Rahul Diwan of Delhi had scored 340 last year, and that seemed to be generally accepted as the top score in India.

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With no concrete answers available, Pujara simply decided to go for broke on Thursday — in a single session, Pujara belted 130 runs, and with 386 runs under his belt (38×4, 5×6), and a half-baked hunch that he’d broken all records, his innings came to an end. “Just go out there and score as much as possible and fast,” his team mates had said before the day’s play began.

All through the morning, they heckled him from the boundary: “Chintu bhai (Pujara’s nickname), kab out honge aap? (Chintu, brother, when will you get out?).

As the BCCI statisticians were contacted again to verify if Pujara had, indeed, created a new first-class record, they still had no clear answers. “We can’t confirm it right away but yes it surely has to be the highest score,” one of them said. Another senior statistician simply decided to stop answering queries and start going through the list.

The opposition, incidentally, were Maharashtra and the four-day game ended up in a draw. The entire Saurashtra line-up managed a mere 160 runs from their total of 546 while Pujara had managed the rest. “When I walked in to bat today, I could hear the fielders saying ‘just get this guy and we’ll dominate’, but I was just not willing to give my wicket,” Pujara said after the innings. “I had done well for India A just recently and wanted to keep the form going. After a while I felt I could see the ball like a football.”

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Such had been his confidence towards the end of his innings that Pujara had set his eyes firmly on cross the 400 mark.

“But I began hitting blindly as time was short,” he said, finally losing his wickets 14 runs short of the mark, caught at long-on.

Incidentally, at last count, none of the BCCI statisticians were still able to confirm whether it is an Indian record or not.

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