Cheteshwar Pujara: 1st batsman to score double-ton with pink ball in First-Class cricket and other stats from his marathon knock

Pujara is the fifth Indian batsman to have made 10 or more double centuries in First-Class cricket.

One of India’s most technically sound batsmen and among the big names in domestic cricket — Cheteshwar Pujara once again proved his skills with the bat in the final game of Duleep Trophy 2016. Pujara is representing Gautam Gambhir-led India Blue who are playing the final game of the tournament against India Red, which is captained by another southpaw — Yuvraj Singh. Batting first, India Blue openers Gambhir and Mayank Agarwal made a solid start with 144 runs for first wicket and after them, it was all about Pujara as he went on to score an excellent and fluent knock of 256-runs in just 363 balls at a strike rate of 70.52. Not to forget that this was a match played with Pink-Ball and with this double ton by Pujara, many records were once again rewritten in the record book. Let us take a look at those records.

1. Pujara became the first batsman to score a double ton in a First-Class match which was played with pink ball. Previous highest score with pink ball in a First-Class match was 172, scored by Kyle Coetzer in March 2010.

2. This was Pujara’s 10th double hundred in First-Class cricket and his first in Duleep Trophy.

3. Pujara is the fifth Indian batsman to have made 10 or more double centuries in First-Class cricket.

4. He has now the joint second-most number of double hundreds in First-Class cricket as an Indian batsman along with Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar and Vijay Hazare.

5. Pujara is now only one more double ton away from levelling the record for joint most number of double hundreds by an Indian in First-Class cricket after Vijay Merchant.

6. Pujara remained unbeaten after scoring 256. This was the seventh instance of Pujara remaining not out after scoring 200 or more out of his 10 double hundreds, which also includes his two triple tons.

7. With this seventh unbeaten double ton by Pujara, he broke the previous record of Merchant for remaining not on most occasions by an Indian batsman after scoring 200 or above in First-Class cricket.

8. Pujara remained not out on five out of those seven unbeaten occasions without touching 300-run landmark in First-Class cricket, which is again joint most such instances by an Indian batsman in this format of the game along with Merchant.

9. Pujara’s 256-run knock came at an excellent strike rate of 70.52, which clears the air over him being famous for playing at a very slow pace.

10. In this knock of 256 runs, Pujara completed his 50, 100 and 200 in style with a boundary and entered the 10,000 runs club in First-Class cricket.

(Abhishek Kumar is a cricket devotee currently staffing with Criclife.com. He can be followed on Twitter @abhik2593 and on Facebook at abhicricket.kumar)