Cheteshwar Pujara failed to impress on the first day of the 2024/25 Ranji Trophy during the match between Saurashtra and Tamil Nadu in Coimbatore. He could only score 16 runs in 41 balls, with just two boundaries before losing his wicket to a wily Sai Kishore.

Kishore castled him with a beauty in the third delivery of the 30th over to put pressure on Saurashtra. Pujara is among the most prolific run-scorers and can play long innings, so Tamil Nadu needed to send him back as soon as possible.

Among the most consistent bowlers in recent times, Sai took a huge wicket to further sink Saurashtra, who had lost some early wickets and needed a partnership. Pujara is usually a solid spin player as he can use his feet and has solid defence, but he had no answer for Kishore’s beauty.

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He would have liked to start a new season on a high note and push for selection again in the national team ahead of the Gavaskar Border Trophy. But things did not go as expected and Pujara recorded a low score to start a new season.

Saurashtra scored 203 in the first innings

After opting to bat first, Saurashtra could only score 203 in the first innings before going all out. Arpit Vasavada scored 62 runs and remained unbeaten but other batsmen could not support him well.

Saurashtra’s second-highest score was by Chirag Jani, who made 34 runs, as several batsmen got the opening but couldn’t translate it into a big one. They could only play 77 overs before Tamil Nadu bundled them into a low total.

As many as three bowlers – Sonu Yadav, M Mohammed and Sai Kishore – bagged three wickets each. Pradosh Ranjan Paul got the other wicket, and it was a collective effort by the bowlers to restrict a strong Saurashtra batting unit to a meager total.

Tamil Nadu will now look to score big and knock Saurashtra out of the game. They should score so much that Saurashtra does not come close to their score in the second innings.

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