Cheteshwar Pujara slammed his 25th Ranji Trophy hundred and converted it into his 18th First Class double hundred in the second round for Saurashtra against Chattisgarh in Rajkot.
Batting on Monday, Pujara reached his hundred in 197 balls as Saurashtra pursued Chattisgarh’s 578/7d first-innings total. Pujara brought up his 66th First Class hundred, taking him past Brian Lara’s tally in the format.
Pujara shattered more records later in the day as he summoned his 18th double century in 348 balls. Pujara is only behind Don Bradman (37), Wally Hammond (36) and Patsy Hendren (22) on the illustrious list of batters with the most First Class double centuries.
The knock was also the 36-year-old Pujara’s ninth Ranji Trophy double-century, putting him level with Paras Dogra for most double hundreds in the tournament. The Saurashtra stalwart has struck two triple hundreds in the tournament, with a high score of 352 against Karnataka in the 2012-13 season.
Pujara also went past 21,000 FC runs during the knock in his 273rd match. Among Indians, Pujara is the fourth-highest run-getter and century-maker in First Class cricket, only behind Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.Despite being out from the Test side since last year’s World Test Championship final against Australia at the Oval, Pujara has continued piling runs in the red-ball circuit. The 36-year-old racked up 829 runs in the previous Ranji Trophy season, averaging 69.08 across eight matches.
In 2024, Pujara has thus far struck six centuries across 16 First Class matches with Saurashtra and Sussex in the County Championship.
Pujara’s 25 centuries is only bettered by Paras Dogra (30) among active players in the Ranji Trophy. With nearly 7500 runs, Pujara is also Saurashtra’s second-highest run-getter in the tournament, behind Sitanshu Kotak.
81 – Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar
68 – Rahul Dravid
66 – Pujara
25834 – Sunil Gavaskar
25396 – Sachin Tendulkar
23784 – Rahul Dravid
21115* – Pujara
37 – Don Bradman
36 – Wally Hammond
22 – Patsy Hendren
18 – Pujara
9 – Pujara
9 – Paras Dogra
7 – Abhinav Mukund
7 – Ajay Sharma
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