Cheteshwar Pujara's Top 5 Scores In T20 Career

Indian cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara is undoubtedly one of the top batsmen in the present days but he is famous in Test or first-class cricket, majorly due to his solid defensive batting who mostly follows the traditional slow and steady batting method. Talking about T20 cricket, Pujara is not famous in this shorter format.

In fact, the right-handed batsman Cheteshwar Pujara is also not popular in the one-day cricket format, despite having the stunning 54.20 batting average in List A cricket after playing 103 matches in this format, including five ODIs for the Indian team.

Due to his slow batting nature, Cheteshwar Pujara is not popular in T20 cricket as well as in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Serving for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) between 2010 and 2014, Pujara scored 390 runs in 30 IPL matches with an average of 20.52 and strike rate of 99.74. Though he scored one half-century in his IPL career (51 for RCB against KXIP in 2013), he only managed to score five more 20+ scores out of 21 more IPL innings.

So, after the IPL 2014, Pujara mostly remained unsold in the IPL auctions. But in the IPL 2021 Auction, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) stunned everyone by putting the sole for him and bought him for INR 50 lakh.

However, Cheteshwar Pujara’s T20 career record is not so weak. Before the IPL 2021, Pujara has played 64 T20 matches where the right-handed batsman has scored 1356 runs with an average of 29.47 and strike rate of 109.35. In his T20 career, Pujara has scored an only century and 7 half-centuries.

More importantly, when Pujara played his last T20 match during the 2018/19 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in March 2019, Pujara finished that tournament with 260 runs in six innings with an average of 86.67 and a strike rate of 131.31, including one century and one more half-century. In fact, he was the most run-scorer for Saurashtra in that tournament.

Here we are talking about Cheteshwar Pujara’s top 5 scores in his T20 career

Cheteshwar Pujara (for Saurashtra): 62 runs off 60 balls against Mumbai on 2nd April 2014

Chasing down the 146 runs target against Mumbai (145/5), while most of the Saurashtra batsmen struggled against the Mumbai bowlers, opening batsman Pujara almost single-handedly took his team to the fightback path. With the 103.33 strike rate, Pujara scored 62 off 60 balls before Zaheer Khan dismissed him in the 19th over. The right-handed batsman hit 7 fours and one six in that innings.

However, Pujara’s team failed to win that game as Mumbai won that match by 16 runs after restricting their opposition to 129/7 (20 overs). Apart from Pujara, only Sheldon Jackson (26) reached the 20-run mark along with the other two double-digit scorers in that chasing.

Cheteshwar Pujara (for Saurashtra): 67 runs off 57 balls against Tripura on 2nd April 2014

After Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah chose to bat first, while they were losing wickets at regular intervals due to lack of strong batting performances, opener Pujara once again played a key role in their batting. He scored 67 off 57 balls (strike rate 117.54; 7 fours and only six) before getting run-out on the fourth ball of the final over as his team managed the first innings total of 144/6 (20 overs). Deepak Punia was the second-highest run-scorer in that innings who scored 19 runs.

Saurashtra won that game by 66 runs as they bundled out Tripura for just 78 runs in 17.3 overs.

Cheteshwar Pujara (for Saurashtra): 68 runs off 46 balls against Madhya Pradesh on 22nd February 2019

Chasing down the 139 runs target against Madhya Pradesh (138 in 20 overs), openers Harvik Desai and Pujara set up the strong partnership of 109 runs for the first wicket and that partnership was enough for them to strongly smell the victory. Desai scored 56 off 36 balls before losing his wicket in the 12th over, but Pujara continued his batting till the 17th over and scored 68 off 46 balls with a strike rate of 147.83 (11 fours) before Mihir Hirwani dismissed him when Saurashtra were only five runs away from the victory.  While Desai completed his fifty in 32 balls, Pujara took 33 balls to reach the same feat.

In that same 17th over,  Saurashtra ultimately chased the target after losing four wickets while they still had 19 balls left.

Cheteshwar Pujara (for Saurashtra): 81 runs off 55 balls against Jammu & Kashmir on 4th January 2016

After Saurashtra were sent in to bat first, opener Cheteshwar Pujara played a powerful knock when most other teammates were struggling with the bat. While Pujara had the 70 runs fourth-wicket partnership with Chirag Jani (38 runs), who was the only other batsman along with Pujara to reach the 20-run mark in that innings, opener Pujara scored 81 off 55 balls with the strike rate of 147.27. During that innings, Pujara hit 5 fours and 5 sixes before Mohammed Mudhasir dismissed him in the 19th over.

While Saurashtra managed to score 157/7 (20 overs), Jammu & Kashmir were bundled out for just 84 runs in 17.1 overs. Saurashtra won that match by 73 runs.

Cheteshwar Pujara (for Saurashtra): 100 not out off 61 balls against Railways on 21st February 2019

After Railways sent Saurashtra to bat first, openers Harvik Desai and Pujara set up a strong opener partnership of 85 runs (Desai scored 34 runs). Pujara reached his fifty in 36 balls and he continued that strong performance while he also set up another strong partnership of 82 runs for the second wicket with Robin Uthappa (46 runs).

Pujara completed his maiden T20 century in 61 balls and remained not out on that score, where the right-handed batsman hit 14 fours and only six. Saurashtra managed the first innings total of 188/3 (20 overs).

However, Saurashtra ultimately lost that match as Railways chased down the target in 19.4 overs after losing five wickets.