Pujara scores fourth successive ton, wins his battle against Shaheen Shah Afridi

PTI, May 8, 2022, 10:44 AM IST

Hove: Cheteshwar Pujara continued his imperious form with a fourth successive hundred for Sussex against a quality Middlesex attack that had Pakistan international Shaheen Shah Afridi in its ranks.

Pujara, who has already scored two double hundreds and a hundred, batted with attacking intent, completing his three-figure mark in 133 balls with 13 boundaries and two sixes.

The first of his two sixes is the one he will remember as he slashed a short ball from Afridi over backward point for a six.

He also hit a boundary off Afridi and negotiated one of the world’s premier pacers with ease, completing 500 runs for the season in only four games.

At stumps on the third day, Pujara was batting on 125 off 149 balls with 16 boundaries and two sixes, and Sussex in their second innings have reached 236 for three in their second innings. Middlesex had scored 358 in their first essay in reply to Sussex’s 392. Pujara’s hundred came off off-spinner Mark Stoneman, whom he drove for three runs.

Upper cut six from Pujara to Shaheen Afridi #CountyCricket2022 #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/A9DQIjtKO6

— PrabhasDHF_ (@PrabhasDHF_) May 7, 2022

Pujara was very attacking throughout the innings and it only helped that the pitch at Sussex’s county ground at Hove was a flat one and with bright sunshine, there wasn’t much happening in the air or off the track.

Pujara added 138 for the third wicket with first-innings centurion Tom Alsop (66 off 90 balls) and was severe on young medium pacer Blake Cullen.

Pujara’s sequence of scores in county cricket stands as 6, 201no, 109, 12, 203, 16, 125 no with a total of 582* runs in four games.