Ranji Trophy: Cheteshwar Pujara joins 20k club

Nagpur, January 21

Spurred by Chirag Jani’s five-wicket haul, defending champions Saurashtra scripted their first outright win of the season with a 238-run thrashing of Vidarbha on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match here today.

Veteran Saurashtra batter Cheteshwar Pujara touched a memorable milestone in his 66-run knock, becoming only the fourth Indian batter to score 20,000 First-Class runs after legends Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Vidarbha were chasing an improbable 373, but folded for 134.

Elsewhere, the remaining two Group C matches between Chandigarh and Gujarat, and Punjab and Tripura were called off for the day due to bad light. Baroda beat Himachal Pradesh by an innings 18 runs.

Brief scores: Saurashtra: 206 & 244 (Jadeja 79, Pujara 66; Yadav 3/42) vs Vidarbha: 78 & 134 (Taide 54; Jani 5/51); Baroda: 482 vs Himachal Pradesh: 184 & 280 (Gurvinder 59; Bhatt 4/32).