Pujara, Gambhir sparkle in final

Greater Noida, Cheteshwar Pujara continued with his sublime form, scoring an impressive century on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy final. Pujara, who scored an impressive 166 against India Green in the previous match, also presented a strong case for his inclusion in the playing XI for the upcoming New Zealand series.
Pujara, who had been dropped for the third away Test against West Indies owing to his indifferent form, has found his mojo back at an opportune time with the national selectors set to announce the Test squad for the three-match New Zealand series on Monday. Pujara and Rohit Sharma have been vying for a middle-order spot and it seems the Saurashtra batsman would get the vote of confidence from the selectors and captain Virat Kohli.
In fact, national selectors Vikram Rathour and Saba Karim were present at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex along with chief coach Anil Kumble.
Pujara played a fluent unbeaten knock of 111 runs in 164 balls, decorated with 15 fours, to put India Blue in a commanding position against India Red. Pujara had twin reasons to celebrate as he not only reached the three-figure mark but also completed his 10,000 runs in first-class cricket, with 33 centuries to his name.
Dinesh Kathik (55 not out) struck his 35th first-class fifty and forged a solid unconquered 120-run partnership with Pujara for the fourth wicket to frustrate the India Red bowlers. In the final session, Pujara and Karthik scored at almost five runs an over — the two adding 151 runs in 33 overs.
At the draw of stumps, India Blue were sitting comfortably at 362 for 3.
The only blemish for India Blue was the early dismissal of Sharma (30), who couldn’t convert his promising start into a big score.
Earlier, opener Gautam Gambhir again reminded the selectors that there’s still enough cricket left in him, the India Blue captain scoring a well-crafted 94 to lay a solid foundation. This was his fourth consecutive fifty-plus score of the tournament.
Gambhir was ably supported by Mayank Agarwal (57), the two sharing an opening-wicket stand of 144 runs.
It was a hard day for the India Red bowlers as leg-spinner Amit Mishra went for 103 runs from his 23 overs, while Yadav leaked 97 runs from 23 overs.
Brief scores: India Blue 1st innings: 362/3 (Pujara 111*, Gambhir 94, Agarwal 57, Karthik 55*; Binny 1/54) v India Red