Pujara roars back to form with unbeaten century to put Saurashtra in command

Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara roared back to form with his 42nd first-class hundred as Saurashtra scored 341 for 5 at stumps in a group B Ranji Trophy encounter against Jharkhand here.

Rajkot: Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara roared back to form with his 42nd first-class hundred as Saurashtra scored 341 for 5 at stumps in a group B Ranji Trophy encounter against Jharkhand here.

Pujara held anchor remaining unbeaten 125 at the end of the day's play -- an innings that had 18 boundaries while facing 223 deliveries.

Pujara has gone through a rough patch with his sequence of scores in last 10 first-class innings being 9 (Test), 18, 34, 28, 4, 0, 14, 12, 35 and 13.

Saurashtra were in trouble at 46 for 3 inside 14 overs when Pujara was joined by other India international Ravindra Jadeja (42, 71 balls) as they added 88 runs for the fourth wicket.

However the 137-run stand between Pujara and Prerak Mankad (85) got Saurashtra in a comfortable position. Mankad hit 12 boundaries and a six in 118 balls.

Pujara also added 70 runs for the sixth wicket with Chirag Jani (40 batting).

Brief Scores Group B

At Rajkot: Saurashtra 341/5 (Cheteshwar Pujara 125 batting, Ravindra Jadeja 42, Prerak Mankad 85, Chirag Jani 40 batting, Ashish Kumar 3/50) vs Jharkhand.

At Valsad: Gujarat 236 (Bharghav Merai 52, Amit Mishra 4/63) vs Haryana 0/1.

At Thumba: Kerala 219 (Sanju Samson 112, Parveez Rasool 6/70) vs Jammu and Kashmir 16/0.